In February 2022, Texas AG Ken Paxton made waves when he formally opined that gender-affirming medical care for minors could constitute child abuse under existing Texas law. Based on that opinion, Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive requiring the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate any parents who sought gender-affirming care for their children. What followed was confusion, chaos, fear, and lawsuits. In this presentation we will examine the current state of the law in Texas, the origin of Paxton’s opinion, the history and details of Doe v. Abbott as the main legal challenge to Abbott’s order, and take a deeper look at how Texas sought to wield executive authority to accomplish what the state’s legislature did not. As states across the country are seemingly in a race to enact anti-trans legislation, we will examine Texas as a case study on how these same tactics might play out elsewhere.
Length: 1 Hour
This session was originally presented at the 2022 Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference in July, 2022, and was recorded in a live encore presentation on August 6, 2022.
Video is here.
Powerpoint slides are here.
Additional materials and references are available via google drive, here.
Transitions ADR 