Call Us Gilead

Read our full comment in response to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's opinion: https://t.co/ex8YbpL4gB

— ACLU of Texas (@ACLUTx) February 23, 2022

DFPS has said they will investigate charges of “child abuse” as defined by this opinion. They don’t really have any choice in the matter. However enforcement falls on district attorneys. The Texas AG has no criminal enforcement power. So this is significant:

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee on Tuesday said his office would not adhere to the attorney general’s non-binding opinion that gender-affirming care is “child abuse” under Texas law. 

Attorney General Ken Paxton issued the opinion Monday afternoon, classifying puberty blockers, testosterone and estrogen treatments as abuse, despite support from major medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, which have come out in favor of such treatments for some children experiencing gender dysphoria. 

"Governor Abbott and General Paxton are ignoring medical professionals and intentionally misrepresenting the law to the detriment of transgender children and their families,” Menefee wrote in a statement. “My office will not participate in these bad faith political games. As the lawyers handling these cases, we owe a duty of candor to the courts about what the law really says. We'll continue to follow the laws on the books—not General Paxton's politically motivated and legally incorrect ‘opinion.'”

Harris County is telling DFPS: “Peddle crazy somewhere else. We’re all full up here.” So any investigations in Harris county will go nowhere. In fact, the five most populous counties in Texas aren’t going along with this:

District Attorneys in five of the largest Texas counties say they will refuse to comply with Abbott's order to prosecute the parents of trans kids.

"We want to ensure our residents with transgender children that they are safe to continue seeking the care their children need." pic.twitter.com/5Yi12m7zGQ

— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) February 24, 2022

The trans children in those counties are safe. The trans children in the other 249 counties? Terrified, no doubt, as are their families. This is an obscenity.

This doesn’t help the reputation of the state either. Paxton doesn’t care, about the families or the state’s reputation. Neither does Abbott. They have primaries to survive.