Abuse investigations expanding, mothers of transgender Texans tell judge

State child-abuse investigators are still pursuing families with transgender children and, in at least one case, expanded the investigation beyond Gov. Greg Abbott's ordered scrutiny of gender-affirming medical care, a new court filing says.

The filing included affidavits from two mothers who, using pseudonyms to protect their families from harassment, described the devastating effect the child-abuse investigations have had on their children.

One, 13-year-old Steve, was pulled out of class Aug. 30 and questioned by a state child-abuse investigator, leading to anxiety attacks and missed classes, disrupting his education and upending hard-won improvements to his mental health, mother Carol Koe wrote.

"This is extremely upsetting given he has been doing so well in school this year, both socially and in his classes," she wrote.

More:Report: Paxton relied on false claims, errors to equate transgender care with child abuse

The other, 14-year-old Whitley, has never received gender-affirming medical care, but the Department of Family and Protective Services has declined to close its investigation after more than six months — and instead added a new requirement, telling mother Samantha Poe on Aug. 25 that investigators wanted proof that Whitley is well-adjusted.

"These requests come six months after confirmation my child is not receiving medical care and independent confirmation by one of Whitley’s teachers that they were doing well," Poe wrote.

The Koe and Poe affidavits were provided last week to state District Judge Amy Clark Meachum, who has already issued two injunctions barring child-abuse investigations of several families with transgender adolescents and is weighing a request to protect additional families from the investigations.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked an appeals court to overturn Meachum's injunctions, arguing in part that the families don't have standing to sue because they complained of potential, not actual, harm. No transgender children have been removed from home and placed into foster care, and no parents have been placed on the state's child abuse registry, his lawyers have argued.

The mothers' affidavits directly challenged those arguments, telling Meachum that their children and families have been traumatized by the investigations.

'Disruptive and traumatic'

Carol Koe said her son, an eighth grader in an undisclosed part of Texas, was suffering from depression and had attempted suicide.

"He shared with me that it was so difficult to consider coming out as transgender that taking his own life seemed like the only option," she wrote.

Two therapists diagnosed Steve with gender dysphoria, and his endocrinologist and pediatrician recommended medical treatment that included puberty blockers and hormones. The change in Steve was "remarkable," Koe said.

"After facing so much depression and distress, he is finally himself again. During that difficult time, Steve had to be homeschooled, but he was finally able to return to public school," Koe wrote. "I have seen him make friends and laugh again. He is finally comfortable with himself and happy."

That changed two weeks ago when a state child-abuse investigator unexpectedly arrived at Steve's school in the morning and, referring to him by the name and sex assigned at birth, had Steve brought into a conference room.

More:Austin judge temporarily blocks child abuse investigations into transgender care in Texas

"For nearly an hour, she asked my son personal questions about himself, his most intimate thoughts, his family, his diagnosis, his medical history, and current health care — all the while keeping him separated from his classmates and keeping him out of class. At one point, she asked him if he was taking any performance enhancing drugs," Koe wrote.

Told the investigator's next step was to interview his parents, Steve "was so upset that he could not go back to class," she said.

"Steve told me he had a meltdown and became very fearful and upset that something might happen to me or his dad because of who he is," Koe wrote, adding that Steve has been unable to fully return to class, leaving early with panic attacks and anxiety.

"The trauma this investigation has added to my son’s life is unwarranted and unnecessary," Koe told the judge. "This intrusion into our lives, our privacy, and my right as a parent to direct my child’s upbringing has been disruptive and traumatic, and I don’t want other Texas families to go through a traumatic experience like ours."

'Exhausted and frustrated'

Legal fights began shortly after Paxton issued a nonbinding attorney general's opinion in February that said gender-affirming care violated state laws against child abuse.

Medical experts said Paxton's opinion relied on false claims, exaggerations and errors, but Abbott quickly signed on, directing the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate all reports of gender-affirming care as potential child abuse.

Within a week of Abbott's Feb. 22 directive, a child-abuse investigator contacted Poe about Whitley, who was "assigned the sex of 'male' at birth" and is "exploring what a social transition feels like," Poe told Meachum. Social transitioning can involve changing names, clothing and appearance to conform with gender identity, and Poe said Whitley had been "doing very well" before Paxton's opinion and Abbott's directive.

Poe said she quickly provided investigators with a letter from Whitley's psychiatrist confirming that her child, who uses the pronouns they and them, had not received any medical care related to gender identity.

Poe also declined to tell Whitley about the matter.

"I assumed that the investigation would be closed quickly, and I could protect my child from additional stress and worry about what might happen to me and whether they would be removed from my care," she told the judge. "Significantly, therapists working with my child warned me that having contact with DFPS and learning I was being investigated may destabilize and cause harm to Whitley."

Instead of closing the case, a Child Protective Services investigator asked in May to schedule a "viewing" of Whitley, but Poe said she refused.

When her lawyer asked the agency to close its investigation in August, the department scheduled an Aug. 25 phone call with an agency lawyer who asked to schedule an interview with Whitley or have "some third party confirm they are 'well-adjusted,'" Poe wrote.

Again, she declined, pointing out that Whitley had not received gender-affirming medical care.

More:New lawsuit seeks to block Texas from treating transgender care as child abuse

Poe recently decided to tell Whitley about the investigation, saying she feared that CPS would pull her child out of class or word would leak out if the agency contacted the principal or teachers. Whitley seemed to take the news well, but two weeks later, a school counselor sent them home, saying the investigation led the student to express suicidal ideation, Poe wrote.

"I am very exhausted and frustrated at this point," she said, noting that instead of ending the investigation upon learning that Whitley was not receiving the type of care that Paxton and Abbott have objected to, the agency added requirements, including proof of the child's well-being,.

"This investigation has been so drawn out that I feel like it is never going to go away until either I give up my civil liberties or the state comes and takes them and my child," Poe added.

What comes next?

Meachum has sided with families of transgender adolescents twice.

In March, the judge ordered the Department of Family and Protective Services to cease all child-abuse investigations that were based solely on the provision of gender-affirming care, ruling that children were being placed at risk and parental rights were being violated.

After Paxton appealed, the Texas Supreme Court blocked Meachum's injunction from applying statewide but left the ban on investigations in place for the one family that had sued.

Freed from Meachum's statewide injunction, state child-welfare workers resumed investigating families of transgender adolescents in May, prompting a second lawsuit by three targeted families and PFLAG, a leading LGBTQ advocacy organization. A second injunction from Meachum in July blocked investigations of two of the families (the third had already been cleared of abuse allegations).

In her order, Meachum said she was still weighing whether to extend the injunction's protection to members of PFLAG. The judge also invited the parties to file additional evidence that could help her make that decision, leading to the affidavits from Koe and Poe, both of whom are members of PFLAG.

In the meantime, Paxton's bid to overturn both injunctions remains before the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, which is one step below the Texas Supreme Court, where the issue is expected to ultimately be decided.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Abuse investigations expanding, mothers of transgender Texans say