Glimmers of Hope in Texas

Last week a Texas appeals court sided with the parents of a transgender teenager and rejected Attorney General, and noted transphobe, Ken Paxton’s efforts to allow a child abuse investigation to proceed.

The ruling will allow a lower court to hear from the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] and Lambda Legal asking to stop the state from launching child abuse investigations against parents who have obtained gender-affirming care for their transgender children.

Paxton’s office did not respond or comment but in a legal opinion issued last month, Paxton equated gender-affirming care with child abuse, after which his partner in bigotry, Governor Greg Abbott, directed Texas Child Protective Services to open investigations into families that provide such care to their children.

This means that in Texas, it is child abuse for the parents of a trans child to even allow … allow … their child to express their gender how they’d like; now, some trans children also take puberty blockers, which is a completely reversible medical treatment prescribed for a many other things beyond transitioning, but Paxton and Abbott dealt the Fear Card by suggesting that parents are also taking their children in for gender reassignment surgeries.

Those types of medical treatments are rarely, if ever, used on children.

But think about that … think about a parent not being allowed to raise and care for  their child as they choose, to help their child adjust to life as the child needs to adjust; perhaps Texas will start arresting parents who provide birth control to their children—and let’s be clear, it’s only for the daughters cuz boys will be boys—and if your daughter finds herself pregnant, forget about an abortion, too.

Texas wants nothing to do with providing healthcare for its citizens but it sure likes to stick its nose into a family’s private healthcare decisions.

And now big business is sticking its nose into Texas. Last week more than 60 companies, including Apple, Google, Meta, Johnson & Johnson, Ikea, PayPal, Capital One, Electronic Arts and many others, called on Governor Abbott to abandon that executive order  in an ad that ran in last Friday’s edition of the Dallas Morning News:

"The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies. … We call on public leaders—in Texas and across the country—to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy … It's not just wrong, it has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families, and our work."

And to be clear, while it’s disgusting to charge a parent with child abuse for simply offering healthcare and gender-affirming care for their child, the bill also would charge doctors, nurses, teachers and other citizens who come in contact with a child receiving that care to report the parents or face "criminal penalties."

Texas is all about turning its citizens on one another for profit, though that might just cost the state over a billion dollars in federal funding over Abbott and Paxton’s desire to punish trans children and their parents.

Last week Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton amended an existing lawsuit against the Biden administration in an attempt to void guidance issued by the US Health and Human Services that said restricting someone’s ability to receive medical care solely on the basis of their sex assigned at birth or gender identity is a violation of the Affordable Care Act for federally funded entities.

Oops. Texas might get hit in the pocketbook.

The federal guidance states that health care providers do not need to disclose private patient information regarding gender-affirming care and that it is illegal to deny health care based on gender identity.

Paxton says Texas does not aim to deny healthcare based on gender identity but they will arrest and charge parents for child abuse if they provide healthcare based on gender identity.

Haste costs. Bigotry ain’t cheap.

Texas Tribune

AXIOS

Texas Tribune