Texas officials have appealed the court order that blocked an investigation regarding the parents of a trans teen.
On 1 March, an employee from the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) filed a lawsuit against Texas over a recent probe over their trans daughter.
In the documents, the parents (who are identified as Jane Doe and John Doe, respectively) said that an investigator requested their daughter’s medical records – who’s referred to as Mary Doe.
“We are terrified for Mary’s health and well-being, and for our family,” they said in a declaration.
That same day, Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of Texas filed a suit to block the DFPS from investigating parents who work with medical professionals to help care for their trans children.
On 2 March, District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order blocking the investigation of Mary Doe’s parents.
However, in response to the judge’s decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an appeal to void the temporary order.
Due to the sudden filing, Meachum’s 11 March hearing has also been postponed.
The forthcoming session was meant to discuss the possibility of issuing a broader order blocking the archaic investigations.
Chase Strangio, the deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, said that the appeal was a way of “doubling down on their cruelty.”
“Our clients and now families across the state are being targeted for the first time for simply continuing to provide the same medically necessary care to their children, as they have for years,” Strangio explained.
Paxton’s appeal arrives a couple of weeks after he issued his official opinion denouncing gender-affirming care.
Following his ignorant statements, Governor Greg Abbott released his own transphobic letter on 22 February.
In the horrific document, he ordered the DFPS to investigate the parents of trans youth who are undergoing gender-affirming care.
“All licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, should report it immediately or face criminal penalties,” he said.
The harmful directives were immediately condemned by LGBTQ+ activists and an array of law officials.
On 22 February, five Texas district attorneys openly denounced Abbott and Paxton’s statements.
“We are deeply disturbed by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton’s cruel directives treating transgender children’s access to life-saving, gender-affirming care as “child abuse,”” they said in a joint Twitter post.
“We also want to be clear: we will enforce the Constitution and will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with the medical decisions made between children, their parents and their medical physicians.”
The statement ended with the group reassuring families of trans kids that they are “safe to continue seeking the care that their children need.”
“We will not allow the Governor and Attorney General to disregard Texan children’s lives in order to score political points,” they said.
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