Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive equating gender-affirming care for transgender youth as child abuse and indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opinion on the issue are much more than political posturing, playing the angles in an election year. These actions are morally wrong, inhumane and harming lives.
Texas conservatives talk big about limited government, only to then parachute into the most intimate parts of life, limiting access to legal abortion, and now grotesquely targeting vulnerable transgender youth and their parents.
While the Legislature didn’t pass Senate Bill 1646, which sought to classify gender-affirming care as child abuse, Paxton nonetheless issued his Feb. 18 nonbinding legal opinion equating sex reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, and testosterone and estrogen treatments to child abuse.
Days later, Abbott followed with his directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. A week later, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, stopped providing hormone therapy to transgender youth.
There are at least nine Child Protective Services investigations of transgender youth and their parents. One of those parents, Amber Briggle, posted a blog about her family’s experience, calling it a “horror show.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit March 1 seeking to block this statewide directive. Last Friday, Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a statewide temporary injunction against Abbott’s directive.
As the ACLU’s lawsuit asserts, “the Texas Governor, Attorney General, and Commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services have attempted to legislate by press release.”
We agree. And we are struck by how these actions dehumanize people and families deserving of love, compassion and support.
The science is on the side of the families. Treatment for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria is a health care decision — guided by medical and mental health professionals.
Medical organizations including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pediatric Endocrine Society have strongly condemned the state’s efforts, saying it blocks evidence-based medical care.
The National Association of Social Workers condemned the continued efforts to define gender-affirming care as child abuse, saying in a statement they “pose an imminent danger to transgender youth and their families.”
Many district attorneys, including Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, have deemed the policy unlawful and unjust.
Sixty-five major U.S. companies who do business in Texas are calling on Abbott to reverse his order.
President Joe Biden condemned Abbott’s directive, calling it “government overreach at its worst,” and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced “several immediate actions to support LGBTQI+ youth.” Now, Texas could lose more than $1 billion in federal funding for violating the Affordable Care Act, filing a lawsuit to try to prevent it, according to the Texas Tribune.
And for what? Politics?
This is part of a GOP-led movement that includes hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the country.
The business community should be up in arms over this. Voters should hear Briggle’s pleas: “We all need you. We cannot do it alone. We are screaming for help. Can you hear us now?”
We hear you. Keep fighting — until Paxton and Abbott reverse this policy.
San Antonio Express-News
