The families of three Texas transgender teens have launched a legal battle to stop child abuse investigations into their decisions to allow their kids to get gender-affirming treatments.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday is seeking a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction against the state investigations ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott, who was named in the district court filing in Travis County.
The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the “vocal advocate” parents of 14-year-old trans child Max Briggle, as well as two 16-year-old anonymous boys, both of whom are getting hormone therapy.
One of the 16-year-old plaintiffs, using the pseudonym Antonio Voe, tried to kill himself the same day that Abbott issued the child-abuse directive, the lawsuit said.
“Antonio said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the filing said.
When child-welfare officials came to Antonio’s home, his mom assumed it was to help after the suicide attempt — but was instead traumatized at being labeled “an ‘alleged perpetrator’ of child abuse,” the suit said.
The lawsuit names Adam and Amber Briggle as “vocal advocates” for their trans teenagers. Getty Images for GLAAD“These events have devastated his life,” the filing said of the teen, noting that his mom “could be placed on a child abuse registry, have Antonio taken away from her, and be barred from … participating in her children’s activities.”
The suit named Adam and Amber Briggle as “vocal advocates” for their 14-year-old child Max, who the suit said was diagnosed with “gender dysphoria around the age of seven.”
Since Abbott’s directive turned the family’s lives “upside down,” they have been yelled at in the street and “called criminals, child abusers, and ‘groomers’ on social media,” the lawsuit said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered investigations into the families of children receiving get gender-affirming treatments. (Kevin C. Downs for The New York“They live in constant fear every day that one or both of our children will be taken away from them,” the lawsuit said of the “proud parents.”
The other teen, using the pseudonym Tommy Roe, felt that Abbott’s directive “was an attack on him and others like him.”
The investigation “has terrorized the Roe family and inflicted ongoing and irreparable harm,” the lawsuit alleged.
All three families are members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group that joined the lawsuit in a bid to stop any future similar child-abuse investigations against its 600 Lone Star member families.
“Loving and affirming your child and empowering them to be themselves is the highest calling of any parent, no matter your child’s gender,” PFLAG’s national executive director, Brian Bond, said in a statement.
“If it takes a court ruling to ensure that the law protects families who lead with love in support of transgender Texans, so be it.”
The governor’s press office did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. The state’s Department of Family and Protective Services, which is named as a defendant along with Commissioner Jaime Masters, said it could not respond to specific investigations or comment on litigation.
In a previous related lawsuit, the Texas Supreme Court found in a partial ruling that the governor could not direct the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate families for providing medically necessary transgender healthcare, but it limited the protection to the specific plaintiffs. The wider case is pending.
A previous ruling in Texas prevented Gov. Greg Abbott from ordering the investigations into trans children’s families, but only to the specific plaintiffs. APArkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. A judge blocked Arkansas’ law. The state is appealing.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urged those who believe they are being discriminated by state agencies receiving federal funds to file complaints with his agency’s civil-rights office.
“States’ attacks on our trans and gender non-conforming youth and their families are dangerous and negligent. It is interference in people’s medical decisions and jeopardizes potentially life-saving care,” Becerra told the Dallas Morning News.
“To anyone who feels targeted or alone in these times, you are not—we see you, and are standing with you.”
With Post Wires
