PARENTS of transgender American minors are under investigation in Texas as part of a controversial new order by conservative governor Greg Abbott, who has deemed the transitioning procedures “child abuse”, according to a complaint filed yesterday.

The mother of a transgender teen was suspended by her employer, a family services agency, and visited by a Child Protective Services investigator who was seeking to learn whether her 16-year-old is “currently transitioning from male to female”, said the court document.

The family, backed by the powerful American Civil Liberties Union, took legal action to block Abbott’s probe and to invalidate his directive on the issue from February 22.

The governor’s letter to the Texas Family and Protective Services Department, published in the middle of an election campaign, states that “‘sex change’ procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law”.

He cited reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilisation and mastectomies, and mentioned puberty blockers that slow the body’s changes during adolescence.

The department is duty bound to “investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures”, said the Republican official.

The unidentified plaintiffs in the petition against the initial investigation said their family have suffered anxiety and fear, and that their daughter has been “traumatised” by the prospect that she “may lose access to the medical treatment that has enabled her to thrive”.

The family are joined in their complaint by a licensed psychologist with many LGBT and transgender clients, who expressed concern that the directive will force her to report those clients to authorities.

Such care to transgender minors, much like participation by transgender athletes in sports competitions or the use of toilets according to the gender with which they identify, is the subject of extensive debate in the United States, where many conservative states have moved to adopt restrictive regulations. – AFP, March 2, 2022.