A Texas judge on Friday blocked the state from investigating as child abuse gender confirming care for transgender youth.
Meachum ruled that by issuing the directive without a new law or rule, the governor and officials’ actions “violate separation of powers by impermissibly encroaching into the legislative domain.” “ singles out these families for targeted scrutiny, it stigmatizes them, invades their privacy and it interferes with the fundamental right of parents to make the decision of what’s best for their child,” Paul Castillo, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, said toward the end of the daylong hearing before Meachum.“I’ll win this fight to protect our Texas children,” Paxton tweeted.
Meachum’s ruling came the same day that dozens of major companies — including Apple, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Meta and Microsoft — criticized the Texas directive in a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News. A child protective services supervisor testified Friday that she resigned from the department because of concerns about the directive, and said cases involving gender confirming care were being treated differently than others.