March 1st, 2022, Boston, MA — Greater Boston PFLAG is appalled by the recent directive from Governor Greg Abbott (he/him) of Texas criminalizing parents whose children have received gender-affirming medical care and directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate them.

To look at loving parents & caregivers listening to their children and working with their children’s medical care providers to enable their children to receive gender affirming care which is medically-recommended by all major medical and healthcare providers and life-saving gender affirming care and to believe that to be “abuse” is utterly misguided. To then misuse state powers to ignore all evidence and direct a state agency to take devastating actions which rip apart families and cause unimaginable harm to those families, as well as all families in Texas whose child is in need of time-critical care is monstrous. 

“Greater Boston PFLAG stands in solidarity with parents and caregivers in Texas in opposition to this. A recent JAMA study shows that gender-affirming care is critical, not only in the long-term, but it has dramatic benefit even within a single year - trans and nonbinary youth demonstrated that receiving medically-recommended care resulted in a 60% decline of depressive symptoms and a 73% reduction in self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Accepting and affirming a child’s gender identity is one of the most meaningful and loving actions you can take and the thought that providing care for our children has been criminalized in another state in this country is horrifying and unacceptable,” said Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman (she/her), Greater Boston PFLAG Executive Director. 

We condemn this latest cruel directive, not only in its own right, but as but one part of the many recent and ongoing actions which are together a highly-coordinated campaign resulting in a record-breaking number of facetious legislative and political measures discriminating on the basis of gender identity through the denial of rights, criminalization of necessary and life-saving care, and functional exclusion from the public sphere and denial of existence of LGBTQ+ individuals, most centrally and especially those who are transgender. These measures manufacture the illusion of problems and actively misrepresent reality and cause real and demonstrated harm. 

Abbott’s overreach of executive power reflects the true intentions of this callous political use of trans people, commonly school-aged children, to enact an agenda and maintain political power. 

We stand together with Texas parents and caregivers and applaud those who oppose and defy this order. Greater Boston PFLAG will continue to take action in our community to support parents/caregivers locally and in Texas, and to advocate for trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive youth everywhere.

About Greater Boston PFLAGGreater Boston PFLAG is a local chapter of PFLAG National and is composed of staff, volunteers, and members throughout eastern Massachusetts. GBPFLAG provides opportunities for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and works every day to achieve our vision of a world in which LGBTQ+ individuals are safe, supported, included, and equal in their families, in their communities, and in society. For more information about Greater Boston PFLAG call 781.891.5966, find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram @GBPFLAG or visit www.gbpflag.org.