Judge Halts Texas “Child Abuse” Investigations Into Trans Youths and Families

A Texas judge ordered that the state stop investigating families who provide gender-affirming care for their children if they are members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ-aligned group.

The order from Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum was issued on FridayIt only applies to Texas-based PFLAG members who are at high risk of being investigated. The judge’s specificity over who is protected from intrusive and unnecessary investigations was due to limitations the state Supreme Court had placed on a previous order issued by Meachum.

For more information on these families, please contact us were prompted by an executive order earlier this year from Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas), who instructed the state Department of Family and Protective Services to conduct “a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances” of gender-affirming care, which his order wrongly characterized as “abusive procedures.”

Meachum had actually placed an injunction on Abbott’s order shortly after it was issued. But the state Supreme Court overruled Meachum’s original actionHe also stated that Texas officials could still pursue the investigations. Lower courts could also impose blocks of Abbott’s executive action, but only for specific plaintiffs, not broadly as Meachum had done.

In her order on Friday, Meachum ruled that members of PFLAG, which had sued on behalf of plaintiffs who were being investigated by the state under Abbott’s decree, should be shielded from being harassed by the state. Meachum issued her order on the basis that there was “a substantial likelihood” that the litigants would be successful in suing to stop the inquiry.

Without the injunction Meachum added in her order, families being investigated by the state would “suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the interim.”

Contrary to the claims made in Abbott’s order, gender-affirming care is far from being “abusive” — in fact, It could save your life..

This care can include a variety of treatments, including verbal therapy, medicine, or surgery in certain cases. Treatment options for children are available. rarely, if ever, include surgeryInstead, most medical treatment for trans young people involves the use of Reversible puberty blocking drugs.

Medical experts largely agree that gender-affirming care for trans youth is more than just safe — it’s also deeply beneficial. In a University of Washington study published in FebruaryThe results of using hormone-affirming hormone and puberty blockers for people aged 13-20 showed that they were associated with a 60% lower risk of mild or severe depression, and a 73 percent lower risk of suicide a year later.

Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry has also confirmed that gender-affirming care is beneficial for trans youth. “Research demonstrates that gender-affirming care…greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents,” the department said in a statement in March.

State laws and policies like Texas’s “run counter to scientific evidence [and] also threaten the mental health of transgender and nonbinary youth,” the department went on.