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Austin Chronicle: Court Halts Abbott’s Anti-Trans ‘Abuse’ Directive

Posted in Austin, Austin Chronicle, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

The Austin Chronicle published an update on the lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott’s trans “abuse” directive, which is (theoretically, temporarily) halted by the courts: 

Families with transgender children in Texas won a reprieve on Friday,  March 11, after a court temporarily blocked a statewide directive  issued by Gov. Greg Abbott that redefined gender affirming care as presumed child abuse.

The action came in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Lambda Legal on behalf of an anonymous family with a 16-year-old transgender teen,  who’d found themselves under investigation by the state. The child’s  mother, referred to in court filings as Jane Doe, was an employee  of the Texas Depart­ment of Family and Protective Services and had  expressed concern about the Feb. 22 directive. The agency then put Doe  on leave and opened an abuse investigation into her family. Another  plaintiff is Dr. Megan Mooney, a Houston psychologist who feared  the directive could force “mandated reporters” such as herself to turn  in clients simply for offering their trans kids appropriate care. Brian Klosterboer,  an ACLU of Texas attorney who represents Mooney and the Doe family,  said the state was moving against trans kids with alarming speed. “It’s  really scary that they’ve weaponized the Department of Family and  Protective Services to play politics with the very lives of transgender  young people and to terrorize families in this state,” Klosterboer told  the Chronicle before the hearing.

Read more in the Austin Chronicle. 

I’ve also been livetweeting a lot recently, including a lengthy recap thread summarizing everything we currently know about the fight for the rights of trans young people. I also tweeted from a rally for trans kids at the Governor’s Mansion, which Infowars tried to crash.

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