A Texas judge on Wednesday blocked the state from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirmation treatments but stopped short of preventing the state from looking into other reports about children receiving similar care.
The parents had been under investigation for alleged child abuse due to providing gender-affirming medical care for their 16-year-old child, according to The Guardian.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Austin District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order halting the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services into the parents for charges of child abuse.
The judge set a March 11 hearing date on whether to issue a broader temporary order blocking enforcement of Abbott’s directive. Meachum issued the order hours after attorneys for the state and for the parents appeared via Zoom in a brief hearing.
The family members, Judge Meachum wrote, “face the imminent and ongoing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma attached to being the subject of an unfounded child abuse investigation.” She blocked the state from taking any adverse employment action against Ms. Doe.
According to the Associated Press, the parents of the 16-year-old girl asked the judge to block the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from investigating them and the parents of other transgender youth under a directive Governor Greg Abbott issued last month.
“Their actions caused terror and anxiety among transgender youth and their families across the Lone Star State and singled out transgender youth and their families,” said the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.
The two groups also represented a clinical psychologist who has said the order will force her to choose between reporting her clients to the state or facing the loss of her license and other penalties.
Abbott’s directive and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide, reports the New York Times.
