Texas child welfare agency officials have started investigating parents of transgender children for possible child abuse charges including one of the agency’s own employees who has a 16-year-old trans daughter.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate reports of 'gender-transitioning procedures,' such as puberty-blocking drugs, last Tuesday.
It came a day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also a Republican, issued an opinion declaring that such procedures are child abuse under existing Texas law.
One of the agency’s employees, who has a transgender daughter, was visited by agency officials on Friday, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman, identified as Jane Doe, by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal.
Texas child welfare agency officials have begun investigating parents of transgender children for possible child abuse charges in accordance with an ordered given last week by Governor Greg Abbott
One of the agency’s employees, who has a transgender daughter, was among the first to be investigated. Above, a group of health care workers protested the governor's order at the state Capitol building on Tuesday
The employee has since sought legal action in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal
The court filing seeks to block the agency’s request for medical records and challenge the constitutionality of the governor’s order
The employee, who works on the review of reports of abuse and neglect, was placed on administrative leave the day after Abbott’s order and has since been asked by agency officials to turn over medical records related to her child, who was identified in the lawsuit as Mary Doe.
The court filing seeks to block the agency’s request for medical records and challenge the constitutionality of both the investigation and the governor’s order.
“We are terrified for Mary’s health and well-being, and for our family,’ Jane Doe wrote in a declaration filed with the lawsuit. ‘I feel betrayed by my state and the agency for whom I work. Not providing Mary with the medically necessary health care that she needs is not an option for us.”
Jane Doe, who refused to voluntarily turn over her daughter’s medical records, spoke to her supervisor at DFPS the day after Abbott issued his order, the lawsuit reads. It is unclear if she disclosed any information about her transgender child, but that same day she was placed on administrative leave.
‘The issuance of the Paxton Opinion and the Abbott Letter, along with DFPS’s implementation of these, has terrorized the Doe family and inflicted ongoing and irreparable harm,’ her lawsuit reads.
Mary Doe has long been under the care of Dr. Megan Mooney, a licensed psychologist in Houston who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, the document reads.
Mooney diagnosed Mary with gender dysphoria and referred the family to other medical professionals who confirmed the diagnosis, according to the lawsuit.
Transgender advocacy groups protested against the governor's order at the Texas Capitol building on Tuesday
A group of religious advocates joined the protest to show support
Gender dysphoria is designated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders as someone’s "marked incongruence between their experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth."
It could lead to ‘symptoms of depression and anxiety, substance use disorders, a negative sense of well-being and poor self-esteem, and an increased risk of self-harm and suicidality,’ and could be treated with psychiatric support, hormonal therapy and surgical therapy, ‘depending on the individual case and patient needs,’ according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Following Mary’s diagnosis, her doctors recommended that she be provided with medical care that has included prescription puberty-delaying medication and hormone therapy ‘to initiate puberty consistent with her female gender,’ the lawsuit reads.
‘Mary was worried about having to undergo a puberty that would result in permanent physical characteristics not in alignment with her female gender. Jane and John observed how the prospect of beginning this puberty caused Mary significant distress and exacerbated her dysphoria,’ the lawsuit reads.
‘Being able to be affirmed as who she is, including through the course of treatment prescribed by her doctors, has brought Mary significant relief and allowed her to thrive,’ it adds.
