The American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups are petitioning a Travis County district court to block a recent directive from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott regarding gender reassignment procedures performed on children, a Tuesday press release revealed.
Abbott, a Republican, released the directive last week in a letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, ordering them to investigate the parents of minors if it appears the children are receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or ''sex-change procedures.''
The directive to the state's DFPS followed a Feb. 18 opinion released by Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton declaring that ''procedures and treatments that result in a child's sterilization are unauthorized and infringe on the child's fundamental right to procreate.''
Abbott, DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters and DFPS were named in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday. The ACLU and other signatories argued the state violated the Texas Administrative Procedures Act, the Texas Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
''Our youth, our communities, will not be used as political props,'' said Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
''We will not allow for these continued efforts to restrict access to life-saving care and criminalize families based on patently false information. To Attorney General Paxton and Gov. Abbott, we will not continue to play a sadistic role in your political theater,'' Schelling said.
The groups said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of a DFPS employee, her transgender child and the employee's husband. The family said that an investigator had already arrived at their house.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Jon L. Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović LGBTQ & HIV Project, the ACLU Women's Rights Project, the ACLU of Texas, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Baker Botts LLP.
The groups seek a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, permanent injunction, and request for declaratory relief.
Both Abbott and Paxton are seeking reelection. The primary election is today.
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