GOVERNOR’S TRANS RANT

Medical procedures on transgender youths should be considered “child abuse”, according to the farright governor of Texas.

Republican Greg Abbott said providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone-suppressing drugs to teenagers should be a crime, and that doctors, teachers and the public should report such cases to the authorities.

The directive provoked an angry response from the White House and from district attorneys in Texas.

Officials in Dallas, Austin and elsewhere said they would not prosecute families whose children received the care, denouncing Mr Abbott’s interpretation of the law as “unAmerican” and an “onslaught on personal freedoms”.

The White House swiftly issued a damning rebuke, saying the comments were an attack on parents and a danger to transgender children.