AUSTIN, Texas — Three more families with transgender children are suing to block abuse investigations the state has opened against them, adding to the litigation Texas faces after deeming certain gender-affirming medical treatments child abuse earlier this year.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Travis County, asks the court to block these investigations and any others into families with transgender children who are members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG.
Adam and Amber Briggle, who have a transgender son and have been one of the few families to publicly comment on the investigation into their family, are parties to the suit, as are Mirabel Voe and Wanda Roe, parents of two other transgender minors.
The lawsuit is being led by Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas and PFLAG.
“Loving and affirming your child and empowering them to be themselves is the highest calling of any parent, no matter your child’s gender,” Brian K. Bond, Executive Director of PFLAG National, said in a statement. “If it takes a court ruling to ensure that the law protects families who lead with love in support of transgender Texans, so be it.”
This is the second lawsuit targeting the state’s February decision to begin investigating certain gender-affirming medical treatments as child abuse.
Lambda Legal and the ACLU filed the first on behalf of one family back in March, weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS ) to undertake such investigations. Last month, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily halted the investigation into that family while the litigation is ongoing.
The court also ruled that the governor did not have the authority to force the DFPS to continue the handful of other probes it had opened into families with transgender children.
With the power back in its hands, the DFPS nonetheless restarted these investigations. The lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to halt at least three of them.
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