Texas CPS blocked from investigating many parents of trans kids

For LGBTQ psychological well being assist, name the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. You can even attain a skilled disaster counselor by way of the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

Texas’ youngster welfare company is as soon as once more blocked from investigating parents who present gender-affirming care to their transgender kids. The injunction applies to any household that belongs to PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group with greater than 600 members in Texas.

The injunction additionally particularly protects a handful of households named within the go well with, together with the Briggles, outspoken advocates for transgender youth who have been among the many first to be investigated underneath this directive.

This is the most recent chapter in a monthslong authorized battle over whether or not offering medically indicated gender-affirming well being care, underneath the steering of a physician, might lead to a discovering of youngster abuse by the state.

In February, following a nonbinding authorized opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to analyze parents who present gender-affirming care to their transgender kids.

The Texas Supreme Court has dominated that Abbott had no grounds to direct DFPS to analyze these households however overturned a statewide injunction on procedural grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal introduced one other lawsuit after that first injunction was overturned, in search of protections on behalf of all members of PFLAG. Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted that injunction Friday, three months after listening to arguments.

“The court has grasped the magnitude and breadth of the continued harm that Gov. Abbott’s directive and Attorney General Paxton’s opinion would have caused if DFPS was allowed to pursue its investigations,” stated Nicholas “Guilly” Guillory, a lawyer with Lambda Legal.

The lawsuit, filed in June, outlined examples of that hurt, together with the story of one 16-year-old transgender boy who tried suicide the identical day the governor issued his directive.

“[He] said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the lawsuit stated.

The outpatient psychiatric facility the place the younger man sought care later reported his parents for offering him with gender-affirming care.

Paxton’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

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