Abbott’s directive deems gender-affirming medical care child abuse
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Feb. 22 directing the department to investigate parents providing gender-affirming medical care to their children.
The letter was sent following Abbott signing on to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Feb. 18 legal opinion, which interprets parents giving any child gender-affirming medical care as child abuse.
Abbott’s letter does not signify any new law. New laws can’t be proposed until the Texas legislature meets again in 2023. Instead, it changes the interpretation of what child abuse is by expanding it to include any gender-affirming care such as hormone therapy, surgeries and pubertal blockers.
The directive requires all licensed professionals including doctors, nurses and teachers to report anything they know about these cases or potentially face criminal penalties.
“For people on campus, it really spreads a lot of misunderstanding among people who might not be educated on the issue or just don’t know the reality of what’s going on in that space, and that really providing a mindset that’s very anti-LGBT if they take that argument at face value without looking into it further,” said Autumn Lauener, social work major. “That can definitely translate further into harassment, misunderstanding and for a lot of people in the trans community, more fear and more feeling that you need to be closeted, that you need to hide it.”
Lauener is also an activist for the transgender community and has worked with the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars (TXTNS) whose Executive Director, Josephine Tittsworth, is an alum of both UH and UHCL.
“The simple fact is within the transgender community, as far as their advancement for freedom, the largest opposition to the transgender movement is from the religious right and no one seems to want to challenge them,” Tittsworth said. “The religious right is one of the driving forces by keeping us oppressed, look at what Governor Abbott just did with the transgender kids. The religious right is keeping us oppressed.”
TXTNS released a letter in response to Abbott’s action. In April 2014 the Student Government at UH passed the Josephine Tittsworth Act. The bill changed how transgender students can use their name, title and gender when completing official university documents.
“[UHCL] does more than most but not as much as should be done…seeing some of the things going through such as installing gender-neutral bathrooms that’s a huge thing, especially for non-binary people, people that don’t feel comfortable going into a gendered bathroom,” Lauener said. “There is definitely more that can be done, but you can’t overlook what’s already being done.”
While UHCL has not released an official statement, programs and departments such as The Common Reader Program, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Latinx and Latin American Studies Program, Humanities Program and Liberal Arts Department at UHCL publicly stated their concerns about the new directive in a joint statement to students.
“As educators and researchers living and working in Texas, we deem gender-affirming health care to be of vital importance in promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of our state’s youth,” the group said in the statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Abbott March 1 on behalf of one of the families currently under investigation.
President Joe Biden released a statement on these policies, referring to them as a cynical and dangerous campaign targeting transgender children and their parents.
“The Governor’s actions callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points,” Biden said in his statement.
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a statement reaffirming its support of LGTBQI+ families and children.
The Office of Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion provides a list of resources for LGTBQ+ students.