San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Judge halts two CPS transgender care investigations
A Travis County judge has granted a narrow injunction against the state of Texas that will continue to block investigations of child abuse for two families who allowed their children to receive gender-affirming care.
The suit was brought by three Texas families and national LGBT advocacy group PFLAG in response to the Department of Family and Protective Services resuming the investigations this spring, after the Texas Supreme Court ruled it could in a similar but separate case.
“The DFPS Rule was given the effect of a new law or new agency rule, despite no new legislation, regulation, or even valid agency policy,” Judge Amy Clark Meachum, a Democrat, said in granting the injunction, which will last until the case's resolution.
Like another Travis County judge who granted a temporary restraining order that blocked the investigations into the plaintiff families, Meachum wrote in her ruling Friday that restarting the inquiries would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to them.
Unlike the previous injunction, however, Meachum's order does not apply to all members of the chapter-based group PFLAG.
Meachum said she will “consider legal and factual consideration” and “rule as soon as possible” on whether to do so.
Adam and Amber Briggle, the third plaintiff family, was also not included in the injunction as their CPS case was closed after the lawsuit was filed.
Within an hour after the district court's ruling, Texas already had filed an appeal, the
plaintiffs' attorneys said. The Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has argued that taking away a child's constitutional right to procreate, especially when they are too young to legally consent — and even the use of gender-affirming medications — could result in physical and mental harm that amounts to abuse. He and Gov. Greg Abbott began pushing for the investigations early this year, though most major medical organizations in Texas and across the nation support gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria is defined as distress associated with a person's gender identity not matching with their sex assigned
at birth.
There have been 11 investigations of parents of Texas transgender youth, testified Marta Talbert, a director of the state's Child Protective Investigations unit who was called as a witness by state lawyers. Talbert said five have been closed and two are close to being closed.
Talbert said this was either because the state found the youth were not on any kind of puberty blockers or hormones or, more often, because their doctor was able to provide information about their care to investigators.
The other cases are stayed by the court through litigation.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs disputed that the investigations were being held up for purely administrative reasons and said there seemed to be “further activity”
by the child welfare agency on them, contradicting Talbert's testimony.
In court Wednesday, two Texas mothers of transgender children, who are plaintiffs in the case and are going by pseudonyms to protect their privacy, testified that the investigations had a “devastating” impact on the well-being of their children and families.
Mirabel Voe described to the court how her son ingested an entire bottle of aspirin on the day that Abbott issued the directive that the state begin the investigations.
The family was later reported to the state for possible child abuse by staff at the psychiatric facility where the boy spent nine days after being discharged from the hospital. An investigator came knocking on their door two days after they returned home.
“No one ever wants to be told they're a bad parent, and especially by the state that they live in, because they love their child enough to take them to receive medical advice, medical treatment,” Voe said, her voice breaking up. “It was sickening, it was maddening, it was horrific to say the least.”
The state called as a witness James Cantor, a clinical psychologist based in Ontario, Canada, who said his reviews of studies have found that the majority of children with gender dysphoria no longer end up having symptoms of the condition after hitting puberty and instead “tend to realize they are gay or lesbian.”
Most of the studies he cited in a blog post making the same argument were published before 1988. Gender identity disorder did not make an appearance in the nation's manual of mental disorders until 1980.
The plaintiffs' attorneys objected to Cantor's testimony, saying the studies referenced were not of transgender youths but rather “tomboys” or “effeminate” youth. They also pointed to a North Carolina district court opinion that found that Cantor lacked personal experience or expertise treating minors with gender dysphoria and therefore gave his testimony “very little weight.”
“It's a complete misrepresentation of the science, one that frankly is the basis and foundation for all of Paxton's opinions, Gov. Abbott's directive and the department's actions,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior attorney with Lambda Legal. “It's a fundamental misunderstanding about trans kids because they don't believe trans kids should exist.”