A Texas judge has hit the breaks on Republicans’ plans to prosecute families of transgender youth for “child abuse.”
On Wednesday, Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted a temporary restraining order that will prevent Republican Governor Greg Abbott from using the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to conduct “child abuse” investigations against parents who provide gender-affirming medical care to their trans kids.
Related: GOP candidate is angry that students aren’t allowed to “laugh at” transgender kids anymore
The judge’s order was in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal on behalf of a 16-year-old trans girl’s family and a psychologist.
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The DFPS investigated one of their own employees and put her on administrative leave soon after. An investigator from the DFPS’s Child Protective Services then came to her family’s home and demanded the teen daughters’ medical records. The family refused and then sued the state.
A psychologist named Megan Mooney joined the lawsuit. Abbott’s directive requires her to snitch on the parents of trans children. The requirement harms her clients and violates her ethical obligations, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accused Abbott and the Texas government of overstepping its legal authority and denying the family and therapist of their constitutional rights.
Judge Meachum will hold a hearing about the legality of Abbott’s order on March 11. Abbott’s order goes against the best practices of trans-related pediatrics outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.
In the meanwhile, even Joe Biden is sick of Abbott’s transphobia.
In a statement released Wednesday, the president called Paxton and Abbott’s actions a “cynical and dangerous” form of “government overreach at its worst” meant to “score political points,” Newsweek reported.
“Transgender children bring fulfillment to their parents, joy to their friends, and are made in the image of God,” Biden wrote. “Affirming a transgender child’s identity is one of the best things a parent, teacher, or doctor can do to help keep children from harm, and parents who love and affirm their children should be applauded and supported, not threatened, investigated, or stigmatized.”
