Today’s ruling by the Third Court of Appeals is a tremendous relief for our family and for the thousands of families like ours across Texas. The Texas Department of Family Protective Services, at the behest of the Governor and Attorney General, cannot investigate loving families of transgender youth for doing nothing more than loving our kids unconditionally and providing them appropriate care in all aspects of their lives. That’s not child abuse. That’s good parenting, full stop.
We feel it’s important to highlight that today’s decisions also come after Attorney General Paxton sat at our dinner table, broke bread with our family, and had the privilege to meet our beautiful children, only to claim – 6 years later! – that supporting our transgender child was tantamount to child abuse.
We are so proud of both of our kids for being so brave in the face of so much fear, and our hearts break that they ever had to endure any of this in the first place. They should have been protected by the state, not threatened by it.
We are also incredibly grateful to all of our lawyers at Lambda Legal, the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, and Baker Botts who sacrificed hundreds of hours to make sure our family and families like ours were protected from further abuse.
Thank you to PFLAG for standing up for our families, and most importantly for providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ people and their families to gather in community and share both our challenges and our triumphs.
We stand in solidarity with all trans-inclusive families, including the Voe, Roe, Doe, and other PFLAG families, and understand how hard this has been for all of us. Your strength inspires us and we will continue to fight alongside you to protect the rights of all transgender people, most especially our kids. Congratulations on today’s landmark victory!
Love to the Max 