March 1, 2022
Contact: Camilla Jenkins, cjenkins@childrensrights.org 917-971-1784
NEW YORK, NY — Today, civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit against Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), and DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters on behalf of the parents of a transgender daughter being investigated by the State’s Department of Family and Protective Services. The suit, filed by the ACLU, ACLU Texas, and Lambda Legal, comes just days after DFPS and other agencies were ordered by Paxton to investigate instances of gender-affirming health care as child abuse and imposing reporting requirements regarding gender-affirming care.
Samantha Bartosz, Deputy Litigation Director at Children’s Rights, issued a statement in response:
“Children’s Rights applauds the brave family and psychologist bringing this lawsuit for challenging Governor Abbott’s blatantly political directive. The Governor’s executive order risks causing irreparable harm to trans youth and their families – all under the guise of punishing so-called ‘child abuse.’ If Governor Abbott and other Texas leaders really cared about children, they would focus their efforts on better serving the children in Texas’s badly broken child welfare system, not on cruelly targeting transgender children and their families for seeking affirming health care. As advocates for children, including LGBTQ+ youth, Children’s Rights stands with the ACLU and Lambda Legal and supports their work to protect children’s rights to appropriate and necessary medical care by blocking this discriminatory executive order.”
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Every day, children are harmed in America’s broken child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and healthcare systems. Through relentless strategic advocacy and legal action, we hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy. Children’s Rights, a national non-profit organization, has made a lasting impact for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children. For more information, please visit www.childrensrights.org.