AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge on Friday temporarily halted the state’s child abuse investigations into two families with transgender children, agreeing they faced immediate harm.
Travis County District Court Judge Jan Soifer granted the families’ requests for a temporary restraining order after a virtual court hearing that lasted less than an hour. In a meaningful move, the families’ lawyers said the order extends to all members of the nonprofit advocacy group for allies of LGBTQ people known as PFLAG.
Friday’s decision marks another temporary, albiet meaningful, win for transgender Texans since the state began to investigate gender-affirming care for minors as abuse earlier this year. A fourth investigation into a family with a trans teen, being litigated in a separate case, was put on hold by another judge last month and doctors at a hospital in Dallas recently won the ability to restart some treatments for new trans youth seeking gender-affirming medical care after major changes to their program in November.
