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A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order on Friday that blocked the state from investigating the families of transgender children who have received gender affirmation treatment that the state has classified as child abuse.
Judge Jan Soifer’s ruling halts investigations against three families who filed a lawsuit and bans similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ + PFLAG Inc. advocacy group.
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“I think there is sufficient reason to believe that the plaintiffs will suffer immediate and irreparable damage if the commissioner and the [Department of Family and Protective Services] they are allowed to continue to implement and enforce this new Departmental standard that equates gender assertion care with child abuse, ”Soifer said at the end of a hearing.
Soifer’s decision comes after the Texas Supreme Court issued a joint ruling last month, which allowed the state to investigate the parents of transgender youth for child abuse while ruling in favor of a family that be contacted by child welfare officials following Republican government order Greg Abbott in February. .
Abbott had ordered state child welfare officials to investigate reports of transgender children receiving gender affirmation treatment.
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Demonstrators in support of transgender rights gather in front of the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama, on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (Jake Crandall / The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)
Friday’s ruling was in response to a challenge from Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenagers and PFLAG. Two of the teenagers were 16 and one was 14.
A Lambda Legal lawyer told the judge that the family of the 14-year-old had learned after the lawsuit was filed that the state investigation into them had been abandoned.
Families had said in court documents that the investigations had generated anxiety for them and their children.
The mother of one of the teenagers said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his order. The outpatient psychiatric center to which the child was referred reported the family for child abuse when they discovered that hormone therapy had been prescribed, the mother said in a court document.
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Protesters gather on State Capitol steps to speak out against transgender bills being considered in the Texas Senate and Texas House on May 20, 2021, in Austin. Texas. ((Photo AP / Eric Gay, file))
In March, a district judge issued a temporary restraining order following a lawsuit on behalf of a 16-year-old whose family claimed to be under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in May that the lower court exceeded its authority in blocking all investigations to follow.
The Texas Department of Family and Welfare Service has said it opened nine investigations following Abbott’s order and a previous non-binding legal opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton that labeled certain medical treatments that confirm gender as child abuse.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.