Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images
A district court judge in Travis County, Texas, granted a temporary restraining order on Wednesday to prevent the state from conduct a child abuse investigation of a family seeking gender-affirming medical care for their transgender daughter, according to CNN.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Texas and the LGBTQ civil rights organization Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the parents of a transgender girl.
Gender-affirming care saves lives. Trans people in Texas deserve access to this care without fear of criminalization from partisans. politician)
We will continue to fight these attacks on trans youth. We will never stop fighting for our communities. https://t.co/YrLnBZRwlY
—ACLU of Texas (@ACLUTx) March 1, 2022
The girl’s mother, an employee of the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), had been furloughed from her job due to to last week’s legal opinion by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which says that gender-affirming treatments and procedures for transgender children can constitute a form of child abuse.
Paxton’s legal opinion prompted Governor Greg Abbott to instruct DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters to “conduct a prompt investigation and comprehensive review of any reported cases of these abusive procedures in the state of Texas.”
Judge Amy Clark Meachum wrote in an order that the family named as d plaintiff in the lawsuit “suffers irreparable harm” unless the defendants, Abbott, and DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters fail to investigate families of transgender children.
Without the temporary restraining order, Meachum wrote, the plaintiffs, identified as Jane, John and Mary Doe, would face “the imminent and continuing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma associated with being the subject of an investigation of child abuse.”
In addition, Meachum wrote that if Jane Doe, a employee of the DFPS, was placed on a Child Abuse Registry as a result of the investigation, she “could lose the ability to practice her profession and both Jane and John Doe could lose their ability to work with minors and volunteer in their community.”
Abbott and Paxton are listed on as candidates in the Republican primary that took place on Tuesday. Abbott won the gubernatorial primary and Paxton will advance to a runoff.
Lawsuit filed on behalf of DFPS employee
According to the lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal, the plaintiffs are identified as clinical psychologist Dr. Megan Mooney and “supportive” parents, “Jane and John Doe”, individually and as close friends of “Mary Doe”, a girl from 03 years old transgender who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria is the psychological distress that occurs when a person’s gender identity and the sex assigned at birth do not align, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Jane Doe, a DFPS employee, asked her employer to clarify how the governor’s order would affect agency policy, according to the lawsuit.
She was then placed on leave “because she has a transgender daughter with a medical need for treatment for gender dysphoria,” the suit says. DFPS Child Protective Services visited the plaintiffs’ home after being told they were under investigation, according to the lawsuit.
Jane Doe is on leave pending the results of the DFPS investigation, according to court documents.
If the investigation finds that the parents committed abuse, they would be placed on the Child Abuse Registry “and would be unduly subject to for all the effects that derive from said placement”, according to the lawsuit. Jane Doe could also face termination and, as a result, lose the family’s health care coverage, according to the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs accuse Abbott and Masters of attempting to “legislate by press release” after the Texas legislature “failed to pass legislation that criminalizes well-established and medically necessary treatment for adolescents with gender dysphoria.”
President Joe Biden criticized Abbott’s order to DFPS and called the move “a cynical and dangerous campaign targeting transgender children and their parents.”
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra reaffirmed HHS’s commitment to support and protect transgender youth and their parents, caregivers and families, in a statement.
.@HHSgov is committed to protecting young Americans who are targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and supporting their parents, caretakers and families. We are evaluating the tools at our disposal to protect trans and gender diverse youth in Texas.
— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) March 3, 2022
Becerra also announced several immediate actions that HHS is taking to support LGBTQI+ youth
and remind Texas and other states of the federal protections that exist to ensure that transgender youth receive the care they need.
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