Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order requiring state agencies to investigate anyone, including parents, involved in or facilitating the delivery of medically-necessary gender-affirming care to transgender youth and teens has just been blocked, temporarily, by a Texas judge.
“The court finds sufficient cause to enter a temporary injunction,” the judge ruled Friday evening, according to The New York Times’s J. David Goodman who writes at The Times the judge said Abbott’s order “had been improperly adopted and violated the State Constitution.”
In stunning news, Lamba Legal revealed in today’s Texas District Court hearing a Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) employee, “Randa Mulanax testified that DFPS investigators were required to prioritize and investigate reports of gender-affirming care, forbidden to close such investigations, and told not to put anything in writing. She resigned.”
Abbott’s order has no legal or medical basis. According to a new report, Abbott campaign officials called labeling care for transgender youth and teens “child abuse” a political “winner,” with one comparing medically-approved and necessary care to cutting “off the hand of their kid.” Abbott is running for re-election against popular Democratic former U.S. Congressman Beto O’Rourke.
“This is a massive relief for thousands of families across Texas terrorized by the governor’s order,” says Gillian Branstetter, National Women’s Law Center press secretary, “as well as evidence of the dangers of politicizing public agencies entrusted with the safety and welfare of children. Fight likely headed to Texas Supreme Court.”
The judge scheduled a trial for July 11, according to Equality Case Files.
This article has been updated with additional information.