Mothers of transgender Texans tell judge child-abuse investigations are expanding

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.

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. 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.