A Texas judge has blocked Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to investigate parents who obtain sex change “medical care” for their allegedly “transgender” children as a form of “child abuse.”
The ruling comes after the GOP governor signed an order in February instructing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as well as other state agencies to launch such probes over the treatments, CBS News reported.
“District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary injunction on Abbott’s order after a family with a transgender teen sued the governor, saying the order violated the constitutional rights of transgender children and their families,” the report noted.
The Associated Press added that Meachum went on to schedule a trial over Abbott’s order to begin on July 11. Nine families are already under investigation by Texas Child Protective Services.
“Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse,” Abbott wrote in the February letter.
Abbott’s order The order came after a non-legally binding statement from Texas attorney general Ken Paxton saying that gender transitioning “procedures and treatments, when performed on children, can legally constitute child abuse.”
Naturally, critics of the order are claiming that Abbott is simply ‘terrorizing trans children,’ without stopping to consider that maybe, just maybe, a child is not mentally capable of making a decision that will literally physically change them for the rest of their lives, and not in a necessarily good way.
“The judge’s decision reflects the recognition that the governor and department circumvented the legislative process and started a rule that terrorized families who love, support and seek the best care for transgender children,” said Paul Castillo, an attorney with Lambda Legal which represents the victims along with the ACLU, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The Blaze added:
Castillo argued to the court that Abbott did not have the authority to define what child abuse is and had thereby violated his clients’ rights.
The Biden administration has vowed to take action against Texas over the order, but they have declined to say exactly what that action might be.
The DFPS said that it had opened at least nine investigations into “gender-transitioning procedures” identified as “child abuse” by Abbott.
CBS News made sure to find a trans family that the outlet could exploit for propaganda purposes.
“The stakes have never been this high or real for us,” Adam Briggle, the father of a transgender teen, told the outlet.
He and his wife, Amber Briggle, said that Child Protective Services showed up at their house to see if they were obtaining sex-change procedures for their 14-year-old son’s transition.
“I was in the fetal position on the floor, gripping the floor, cause the room wouldn’t stop spinning,” Amber Briggle said.
The fetal position, no less.
The couple said they invited Paxton to their home in 2016 along with his wife for dinner to have a discussion about transgender issues. CBS News added that Paxton even took a picture with their son.
“They know we’re not child abusers,” Amber Briggle said. “He sat at my table and broke bread with my family, and then says that families like mine should not exist. He’s doing — it’s a political stunt.”
