By Veronica Miller
AUSTIN, TX – The Travis County District Court blocked a directive from the state this week that would have allowed the Department of Family and Protective Services to place trans youth into foster care and place child abuse charges against the parents.
With this directive, DFPS was ordered to investigate the parents of transgender children who are seeking care from medical professionals for their children.
ACLU of Texas attorney Brian Klosterboer stated, “The court’s decisive ruling today brings some needed relief to trans youth in Texas but we cannot stop fighting. All trans young people deserve to live freely as their true selves.”
The court decided to block this directive after a lawsuit was filed by on behalf of a DFPS staffer, and her spouse who are the parents of a transgender child.
Included in this lawsuit is a doctor, who as a licensed psychologist is a mandated reporter and said it would cause harm to her clients if she were to follow the State’s directive.
Paul Castillo, Senior Counsel at Lambda Legal said, “Parents who love their transgender children and work with healthcare providers to support and affirm their well-being should be celebrated rather than investigated as criminals.”
Castillo also noted, “We feel relieved and vindicated that the judge understood the magnitude and breadth of the harm that would have resulted if Texas’ child welfare agency were allowed to continue enforcing this lawless directive.”
Chase Strantigo, the deputy director for Trans Justice with the American Civil Liberties Union LGBTQ & HIV project stated, “We are relieved for Texas Families and will never stop fighting for trans justice.”
Strantigo added, “The judge recognized the governor and DFPS’s actions for what they were—unauthorized and unconstitutional exercises of power that cause severe, immediate, and devastating harms to transgender youth and their families across Texas.”
