Texas Governor Demands Parents in Favor of Gender Affirming Care for Their Trans Kids Labeled Child Abusers

Texas Governor Greg Abbott  issued a  letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) demanding they investigate parents supporting gender affirming care for their trans kids.

Abbot wrote in the letter, “I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”

After the Texas legislature tried and failed to pass S.B. 1646, that would have declared parents who allow their trans children to take puberty blockers or hormone therapy to be child abusers,  Abbott decided to work around the legislature and asked DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters last year to declare that gender affirming surgery is child abuse when performed on children, even though it is not performed on children.

Earlier this week, the attorney general of Texas, Republican Ken Paxton, issued a non-binding opinion stating that gender affirming health care for transgender youth is a form of child abuse, a move that could increase harassment of the families of trans children. And his main reasoning for calling gender affirming care child abuse is that trans people might not be able to make babies with certain kinds of gender affirming care.

The 13-page document came in response to a letter from Texas Rep. Matt Krause (R), the same lawmaker who is trying to eliminate LGBTQ books from schools, including And Tango Makes Three, a book about a penguin with two dads.

Citing Paxton’s opinion, Abbott’s order says that it’s “clear” that “it is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilizations, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”