AUSTIN, Texas — A Travis County judge has ordered the state to stop child-abuse investigations into two families who are helping their transgender kids access gender-affirming care.
State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum wrote the investigations are "gross invasions of privacy" that intrude on parental rights and decision-making. The order bars the agency from expanding the definition of child abuse in order to investigate the families.
Meachum's order, delivered Friday evening, determined that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services violated state law by improperly implementing a new rule on gender-affirming care at the insistence of Gov. Greg Abbott in February.
The judge said she was still weighing whether to provide additional relief to Texas members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group that sued to block child-abuse investigations into families who are members of the group. She's also still weighing whether to provide more relief to a third family that sued but had already been cleared of abuse allegations.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly appealed, as he did with a similar injunction issued by Meachum in March.
In a joint statement, lawyers for the families praised the judge for recognizing "that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their...
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