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The parents of a transgender child who once had Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over for dinner are now under investigation for child abuse after Paxton released a legal opinion on gender-affirming care.
Last month, Paxton released an opinion labeling certain types of gender-affirming care for transgender children as child abuse. As a result, Amber Briggle and her husband Adam, who shared dinner with Paxton and her son in 2016, are now among those who Child Protective Services is investigating, KHOU-TV reported.
@mrsbriggle and I are being investigated by Texas DFPS. This is part of a state-sanctioned, illegal raid against loving families. Where are the allies? https://t.co/Gp8DkvHHnr
— Adam Briggle (He/Him) (@adambriggle) March 9, 2022
The situation adds to the growing controversy surrounding whether children should receive gender-affirming care such as social transition support, providing puberty blockers, or, in rare cases, more advanced medical procedures like hormone therapy. People in support of gender-affirming care say transgender children deserve to have care that reflects how they identify, while critics say it could harm children's development.
Briggle told the Texas Tribune she invited Paxton and his wife over for dinner following a request he led to block a federal mandate allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender.
She described her son, who was eight years old at the time, washing his hands in the bathroom with Paxton and him telling her "This is nice. It's been a while since I had kids this age." She told the local newspaper that as they were leaving, she asked him about supporting transgender children and he shrugged, saying he doesn't make the laws.
"He sits at the table, breaks bread with my children, with my family, in my loving, nonviolent, drug-free, safe and stable home, and then says that families like mine should not exist," Briggle said. "It's shameful."
In a statement posted to Briggle's website called Love to the Max, the Briggle family said a Child Protective Services investigator interviewed the family and inspected their home. The family described the reaction to the initial call from CPS as feeling "the wind had been knocked out of us," leaving them with fear and panic. But after the investigator looked through the house, she said the Briggles were "clearly doing something right," the statement added.
"We are the family you would want to place a foster child with, not the family whose children should become foster kids themselves," the family said. "And yet, the government is attempting to rip our family apart because we love our children unconditionally. Is this who we are, America?"
The attorney general's opinion says treatments such as puberty blockers "prevent a person's body from developing the capability to procreate." A report by the Mayo Clinic says the changes caused by the blockers are temporary, and if stopped, puberty resumes normally. But Paxton said in his report that there is "insufficient evidence" to show puberty resumes once the blockers are stopped.
He argues the alleged "lifelong sterilization" caused by these treatments would create "mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child's growth, development or psychological functioning," constituting child abuse.
Most gender-affirming care primarily focuses on "social transition," or letting the child express their gender how they want to the world, according to KHOU. Sometimes, transgender children will take puberty blockers, which serve to lessen the effects of puberty until the child and their family decide whether to proceed with a medical transition. Organizations like the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health support transgender children using puberty blockers, the St. Louis Children's Hospital reported.
According to the University of Los Angeles' Williams Institute, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association also view gender-affirming medical care as "evidence-based patient care," as research shows it helps improve the mental health of transgender youth.
As of April 2021, more than 45,000 transgender youths were at facing the possibility of losing medical care due to statewide bans, the report added.
In its statement, the Briggle family called on the public to help others not experience the "same trauma and violation as ours," adding that they have received death threats.
"Yet here we are, standing strong and united as a family, pushing back against government overreach and fascist ideals that only advance one party's political agenda, and not the people they have been elected to serve," it said. "We speak out today not just for our family, but for those who have been forced into silence, and deserve protection too."
Update 03/10/22 11:55 a.m. ET: This story was updated to provide accuracy that the Briggles came under investigation after Paxton's opinion was released.
Update 03/09/22 3:05 p.m. ET: This story was updated to add more information.
