Texas judge hears case on state’s gender care investigations
By ANDREW DeMILLO
Associated Press
A Texas judge is holding a hearing on whether state officials should be allowed to conduct child abuse investigations over transgender youth receiving gender confirming care. District Judge Amy Clark Meachum will hear Friday from attorneys for the state and the parents of a 16-year-old girl who were being investigated by the Department of Family and Protective Services over such care. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last month ordered DFPS to investigate reports of transgender youth receiving gender confirming care as child abuse. The hearing comes the same day that dozens of major companies — including Apple, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Meta and Microsoft — criticized the Texas directive in a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News.