AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge on Friday issued an injunction prohibiting the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from pursuing child abuse investigations into two more families with transgender children.
Judge Jan Soifer granted the request for a temporary injunction to halt the investigations into the two families who allow or help their trans children to receive gender-affirming care.
The judge delayed a decision on whether an injunction could be implemented in a more wide-reaching freeze on child abuse investigations launched into all families who are members of the national nonprofit LGBT group PFLAG.
The injunction, granted after an eight hour hearing Wednesday, marks another win for Texas families with trans children who have been the subject of state investigations since top GOP leaders classified certain medical care as abuse earlier this year. This is the second lawsuit brought against the state for that policy change, both of which have resulted in families winning temporary reprieves during litigation.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expected to appeal Soifer’s decision.
“We are gratified that the Court reiterated that the DFPS rule is unlawful and changed the status quo for Texas transgender youth and their families,” said a statement released by attorneys for families suing in this case. “The Court recognized yet again that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families.”
Age-appropriate and individualized medical treatments for trans youth are supported by the state and nation’s largest physicians groups including the American and Texas Medical Associations.
Nevertheless, Texas’ Republican politicians have placed more and more attention on medical treatments for transgender youths in recent months. Last year, state lawmakers debated bills to crack down on gender-affirming health care for minors but failed to pass anything into law.
In February, Paxton issued a nonbinding opinion defining certain types of gender-affirming medical treatments including puberty blockers and hormone therapy as child abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott then directed Child Protective Services to investigate reports of minors receiving such treatments. At least nine investigations have been launched.
The parents of a transgender teen girl, one of whom works for CPS, were the first to take Abbott to court over the directive in March. Last month, the Texas Supreme Court put the investigation into that family, known by the pseudonym Doe, on hold and ruled that Abbott and Paxton did not have the authority to force CPS to undertake these kinds of investigations.
The merits of that case continue to be litigated.
However, the Supreme Court did not extend the protection it gave to the Doe family to all others under state scrutiny. The decision put the control back into the hands of CPS, which soon continued several of its abuse investigations into families with trans children.
This prompted families in this case to sue. The lawsuit is being led by Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Texas. Along with the families, PFLAG is also a plaintiff.
The injunction does not affect one of the families involved in the case, where the state already found there was no child abuse and closed the investigation.
