Latest anti-transgender initiative in Texas draws national scrutiny

Photo Courtesy: ACLU

(AUSTIN, Texas) Texas Governor Greg Abbott has authorized a new anti-transgender initiative, sparking debate across the country. 

The new Texas directive requires DFPS to classify medical treatments for transgender adolescents as “child abuse” under existing state law, the latest in a string of anti-transgender regulations being enforced in Texas. 

According to the Boston University News website, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has since launched an investigation into a case where a transgender teenage girl was granted gender-affirming medical treatment.   

Lawmakers began introducing similar bills in the State’s house and Senate last year.  

Putting pressure on parents

Abbott called on the citizens of Texas as well as its medical community to report parents who are permitting gender-affirming surgery and medicine for their minors. 

NBC News reports the governor's order arrived as a letter to the Department of Family and Protective Services, which instructs them to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” of any reported instances of minors undergoing “elective procedures for gender transitioning.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed Abbott’s sentiments by stating that allowing children to access transition care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery is child abuse under state law.

Ally Evans, member of the LBTQ+ community, said the state’s response to parents is unconstitutional. 

“This new law that is being presented by Governor Abbott is definitely a breach in our constitutional rights and parents need to fight this thing with everything that they got," Evans said. 

Brian Klosterboer, Staff Attorney at American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, released a statement in support of parents treating their transgender children. 

“The law is clear that parents, guardians, and doctors can provide transgender youth with treatment in accordance with prevailing standards of care,” he said. “Any parent or guardian who loves and supports their child and is taking them to a licensed healthcare provider is not engaging in child abuse.”

“Trans kids are kids”

Gender-affirming care primarily consists of a set of medical procedures that helps an individual to outwardly assume their perceived gender identity. 

Seth Kaplan, President of the Texas Pediatric Society, told the Texas Tribune transgender children deserve to be treated equally when it comes to healthcare. 

“The most important message is that trans kids are kids,” Kaplan said. “And they deserve to have the same health care that all kids have, which is evidence-based health care that serves to promote their growth and development to help them become healthy, fully functioning adults.”

Adri Perez, Policy and Advocacy Strategist at Texas ACLU, touted the benefits of gender-affirming surgery in their official response to the directive. 

“Gender-affirming care saved my life," Perez said. "Trans kids today deserve the same opportunity by receiving the highest standard of care, rooted in decades of scientific research. No partisan political attack can change that.”

A matter of mental health 

Experts say gender-affirming care can heavily impact the mental health of transgender girls and boys.

One study shows that Gender Affirming Care reduces the risk of suicide and depression in transgender children between the ages of 13 to 20 years, with 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality. 

“These kids already suffer from much higher rates of mental health concerns related to anxiety and the higher levels of suicidal ideation because of all the stress that they’re under,” Kaplan told the Texas Tribune. “And so, these laws have the potential to just have a dramatic impact on these families.”