From the 2017 “bathroom bill” to a new law restricting trans student athletes, Republican lawmakers have targeted transgender Texans for years. In early 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott’s order equating gender-affirming care with child abuse left transgender children and their parents terrified. Texas Tribune reporters are covering these laws and directives — and their effects on Texas families.
Gender-affirming care, which leading health care organizations in Texas say is the best way to provide care to transgender children, is emerging as a top target of state Republicans and lies at the heart of brewing political and legal battles. Full Story
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Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care, driving one such family to leave home. Full Story
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The Granbury superintendent’s comments, made on a leaked recording, raise constitutional concerns, legal experts said. Full Story
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Hospitals across the state have already started restricting critical treatment as health care providers fear legal consequences and worry they could lose their medical licenses. Meanwhile, teenagers are already leaving the state to get care or avoiding medical care altogether. Full Story
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The temporary injunction was issued as part of a lawsuit brought on behalf of parents being investigated by child welfare workers for letting their transgender teenager access gender-affirming health care. Full Story
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It took him three years to come out to his mother as trans. Now, under a new directive from the governor, the state is investigating whether she pressured him to transition. Full Story
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Paxton tweeted Friday that investigations into parents of transgender children would continue as a result of his appeal. But the state’s child welfare agency won’t confirm the status of the investigations. Full Story
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Jeff Younger sees himself as the “tip of the spear” in an effort that led the state to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse. Full Story
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Hospital administrators and doctors at GENECIS struggled to reconcile halting care with the knowledge that doing so could severely jeopardize patients’ mental health, recordings of internal meetings show. Full Story
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In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Eleanor and Sneha about Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to open child abuse investigations into families providing gender-affirming care for their children. Full Story
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The Department of Family and Protective Services has been under federal court monitoring for over a decade for violating the civil rights of kids in foster care. Now, the short-staffed agency has to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care. Full Story
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District Judge Amy Clark Meachum said the governor’s directive for the state child welfare agency to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children was “beyond the scope of his authority and unconstitutional.” The statewide injunction will remain in effect until the case is heard in July. Full Story
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The letter, published as a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News, was also signed by Salesforce, Johnson & Johnson, Dow and Capital One. The companies said they do business, create jobs and serve customers in Texas and are committed to creating safe communities for LGBTQ people. Full Story
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Lucky for them, Texas officials probably can’t be prosecuted for bullying under the state’s education laws. The gist of those laws, however, is crystal clear, and so is the effect of their actions and rhetoric about gender-affirming health care. Full Story
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Texas is worried it could lose over a billion dollars in federal funding over Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive requiring medical professionals to report gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse. Full Story
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The issue is no longer contained to just the party’s fringes — and it is unlikely to go away any time soon as the national fervor grows, Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive faces legal challenges and it factors prominently into a slew of GOP primary runoffs. Full Story
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The appeals court’s decision allows a lower court to hold a hearing on whether Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to investigate certain gender-affirming care as child abuse can stand. Full Story
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Amber Briggle had hoped inviting Paxton to dinner might soften his views about transgender children. Now, the family is under investigation after he issued an opinion equating gender-affirming medical care with child abuse. Full Story
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Citing potential criminal penalties, Texas Children’s Hospital will no longer provide hormone therapy to transgender patients. Full Story
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Ever since Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s child welfare agency to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children, LGBTQ-affirming family lawyers statewide have been deluged with calls. Full Story
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A Texas judge was scheduled to consider a statewide injunction on investigations of parents over obtaining gender-affirming care. The appeal now puts the hearing on hold. Full Story
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The ACLU suit looks to block Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services investigate parents seeking gender-affirming care for their transgender children. Full Story
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Some experts doubt that classifying gender-affirming care as child abuse would hold up in court, but families still feel targeted by Gov. Greg Abbott’s new order Full Story
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