A Texas judge has ordered the state’s child welfare agency to halt all investigations into the families of transgender children if they are members of the LGBT advocacy nonprofit PFLAG.
On Friday afternoon, Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted a temporary injunction requested by several families who sued the Department of Family and Protective Services for initiating child abuse investigations into whether their minor children were receiving certain kinds of gender-affirming health care.
In early July the judge halted the probes into the families who sued. But she had not decided whether to expand the order to all families who are members of PFLAG, a nationwide organization of parents, families and allies of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people.
The decision is a major win for families who sued to stop child abuse investigations into the medical care they are allowing their transgender children to access. Her order does not determine the merits of the case; it will continue to be litigated with the investigations on hold.
Age-appropriate and individualized medical treatments for trans youth are supported by the state and nation’s largest physicians groups including the American and Texas Medical Associations.
The child welfare agency and Office of the Attorney General, which is representing the state, did not immediately return requests for comment.
The investigations were launched after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding opinion in February defining certain types of gender-affirming medical treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy as child abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott then directed Child Protective Services to investigate reports of minors receiving such treatments.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in June that Abbott and Paxton don’t have the authority to order DFPS to start such investigations, but the agency decided to continue them despite the ruling.
The state has initiated at least 12 child abuse investigations into reports of minors receiving gender-affirming health care. Eight of these probes have been closed without a child being removed from the home.
