It appears that even Texas has wiser a Supreme Court than the one in Washington, D.C. In Texas, the court decided that neither Governor Greg Abbott (D-TX) nor his attorney general can on a whim order the state to do child abuse inspections on families. The governor opposed “certain medical treatment for their transgender children,” according to Reuters.
Specifically, Texas’ high court claimed that the state could not go after a 16-year-old transgender child’s family. This was during the time their lawsuit had become stuff in the lower courts.
A mother of a transgender daughter said she would move rather than deal with Texas’ draconian self-imposed rules and regulations, according to CNN:
‘There’s pretty much nothing that could keep us here. The general feeling (in Texas) is just constant fear. I’m always worried that she’s going to accidentally say something about her penis in public, because that has happened, and I see the way people react to us which is why Texas hasn’t really ever felt safe…it’s just time for us to get out and I want to be somewhere there are actually laws in the books that protect her instead of trying to erase her.’
The Texas Supreme Court did not do a generic ban on these inspections. That rightly belonged as an issue in the Department for Family and Protective Services (DFPS). The Court wrote:
‘The Governor and the Attorney General were certainly well within their rights to state their legal and policy views on this topic, but DFPS was not compelled by law to follow them.’
Texas has now joined “dozens of states” with politicians trying to make criminal the parents providing medical treatment for their children in the midst of their transition phase into their true sex. This appeared to be just one more cornerstone where the conservatives can hit the Democrats during elections.
In its ruling, the Texas Supreme Court noted that DFPS officials, through press statements the agency made, appeared to think it was bound by the Republican governor or attorney general’s opinions on the matter, but that “nothing before this Court supports the notion that DFPS is so bound.”
DFPS released a number of press statements that led the Texas Supreme Court to surmise that it felt bound to follow orders from both Governor Abbott and AG Paxton. Then, the AG called the Court’s ruling a “win” when he tweeted:
‘[He had] just secured a win for families against the gender ideology of doctors, big pharma, clinics trying to ‘trans’ confused, innocent children.’
Both the ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal represented the transgender teen and called the case “a win for our clients and the rule of law.” She has been taking “puberty-delaying medications and hormone therapy.” To preserve her privacy, they refer to her only as “Mary Doe, a minor:”
‘The lawsuit says no other state treats gender-affirming medical care as a form of child abuse. There is wide agreement among mainstream medical and mental health professionals that gender-affirming care saves lives by reducing the risk of depression and suicide.’
Abbott had ordered a DFPS to investigate a minimum of nine like child welfare cases.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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