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Texas judge pauses investigations of parents with transgender children

Greg Abbott
Posted at 5:22 PM, Mar 11, 2022
and last updated 2022-03-14 10:32:44-04

A Texas judge has just put a temporary halt on a directive in that state to investigate families who seek out gender-affirming therapy for their children.

District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a statewide temporary injunction on Friday against Texas' Gov. Greg Abbott's directive that ordered the state to investigate parents for child abuse if they sought out gender-affirming care for their children, Axios reported.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said on Friday that their investigators were to be required to prioritize cases of parents with transgender children and said that they were told they wouldn't be allowed to close the cases even if they had determined that no child abuse was happening.

As CNN reported, the state of Texas had earlier opened at least nine alleged abuse investigations involving minors receiving gender-affirming care.

This latest injunction issued is an expansion of an earlier one handed down by the same judge which blocked an investigation by the state focusing on one transgender teenager. The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal sued on behalf of the family of the 16-year-old girl whose parents were being investigated based on Gov. Abbott's directive.