Judge in Austin issues 3rd order blocking abuse investigations into transgender medical care

For the third time in six months, a judge in Travis County has issued an order blocking the state's child welfare agency from launching or continuing investigations into families that provide gender-affirming medical care to their transgender adolescents.

Two previous orders from state District Judge Amy Clark Meachum had only applied to three families who were under state investigation.

Friday afternoon, Meachum significantly expanded the reach of her rulings by barring child abuse investigations into any Texas family that belongs to PFLAG, a leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, if those investigations were based solely on providing gender-affirming care.

Meachum said the investigations, begun at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott in February, led to "gross invasions of privacy in the home and school," inflicted unnecessary trauma on families, intruded on parental decision making and threatened to deprive adolescents of medically necessary care.

Lawyers for the families and PFLAG, which has 17 chapters in Texas, praised the ruling.

"Families across Texas, since Gov. Abbott issued his directive, have lived in fear of the knock on the door," said Nicholas Guillory with Lambda Legal. "Parents who love their transgender children and work with health care providers to support and affirm their well-being should be celebrated rather than investigated as criminals, as the state sought to do here."

Meachum set a June 2023 trial on whether to convert Friday's temporary injunction into a permanent one, but the issue will ultimately be decided by the appeals courts in the coming months.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's bids to overturn Meachum's two prior injunctions are awaiting action by the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-1. The next step will be the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, which will have the final say on the legality of the child abuse investigations.

Meachum issued her first injunction in March, ordering the state Department of Family and Protective Services to cease all child abuse investigations that were based solely on providing gender-affirming care. After Paxton appealed, the Texas Supreme Court blocked Meachum's order from applying statewide, but it left the ban on investigations in place for the one family that had sued.

When state child welfare workers resumed investigating families of transgender adolescents in May, a second lawsuit was filed by three targeted families and PFLAG, and Meachum responded with a second injunction in July that blocked investigations into two of the families.

At the time, Meachum said she was still weighing whether to extend her order to PFLAG and the third family, which had already been cleared of abuse allegations.

On Sept. 7, the mothers of two transgender teens filed affidavits informing Meachum that continuing child abuse investigations have had a devastating effect on their children. The mothers said they sued using pseudonyms to protect their families from harassment.

Carol Koe wrote that her son, 13-year-old Steve, was pulled out of class Aug. 30 and questioned by a state child abuse investigator, leading to anxiety attacks and missed classes, disrupting his education and upending hard-won improvements to his mental health.

Samantha Poe wrote that although 14-year-old Whitley has never received gender-affirming medical care, the Department of Family and Protective Services has declined to close its investigation after more than six months — and instead it added a new requirement on Aug, 25, demanding proof that Whitley was "well-adjusted."

"These requests come six months after confirmation my child is not receiving medical care and independent confirmation by one of Whitley’s teachers that they were doing well," Poe wrote.

In Friday's order, Meachum said the new information justified an expanded injunction to block "unlawful and unwarranted" child abuse investigations into members of PFLAG and the third family that sued.

The state did not investigate gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, as child abuse before Feb. 22, when Abbott's directive prompted the Department of Family and Protective Services to adopt a new policy requiring all reports of gender care to be investigated, Meachum said.

The department did not follow required procedures to adopt the new policy, the judge said: "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."