A Texas court on Wednesday tossed out the state’s appeal of an order preventing child welfare officials from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirming care the youth received.
The Texas Court of Appeals dismissed Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal of the temporary order a judge issued last week halting the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services into the parents of the 16-year-old girl.
The parents sued over the investigation and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that officials look into reports of such treatments as abuse. The lawsuit marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as “child abuse.”
The appeals court’s decision clears the way for the judge to hold a hearing on whether to issue a broader temporary order blocking enforcement of Abbott’s directive.
