By Nolan D. McCaskill
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Photo: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration twice this week to stop federal rules designed to strengthen protections for LGBTQ Americans.
Paxton filed a petition Tuesday to block a rule requiring state welfare agencies to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care. He joined 16 other states Thursday in a separate lawsuit to stop gender dysphoria from being classified as a disability.
Both rules, enacted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, could affect state access to federal funding.
HHS in May finalized a rule that barred discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with gender dysphoria, a condition describing the extreme discomfort felt by those whose gender identity differs from their sex at birth.
In the rule, the administration said gender dysphoria can be a disabling condition, causing “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”
The multistate complaint, filed in Lubbock federal court, argued that under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, gender identity disorders that don’t result from physical impairments or other sexual behavior disorders are not protected disabilities.
The states are seeking a court order stopping the Biden administration from implementing or enforcing the rule.
The filing said the expanded definition of what qualifies as a disability would require Texas agencies to “expend time, money, and resources to provide” accommodations or risk “being subjected to investigations, charges, or lawsuits by allegedly aggrieved employees or the federal government.”
Likely accommodations, the lawsuit said, include using preferred pronouns and allowing employees to “dress as a member of the opposite sex” and use bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t align with their biological sex.
“All these requirements impose substantial costs and injuries on Texas,” the lawsuit said, adding that failure to comply could cost states hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.
In a statement, Paxton said he sued HHS because it lacks authority “to unilaterally rewrite statutory definitions and classify ‘gender dysphoria’ as a disability.”
“The Biden Administration is once again abusing executive action to sidestep federal law and force unscientific, unfounded gender ideology onto the public,” he said.
HHS finalized another rule in April that the administration said would strengthen protections for LGBTQ children in foster care by clarifying statutory requirements for federal funding.
HHS said LGBTQ children are overrepresented in foster care, bullied and harassed more than other children, and experience worse outcomes, such as mental health-related hospitalizations and homelessness.
The rule requires state welfare agencies to ensure LGBTQ children have access to specially designated foster care placements. Such placements require providers to create an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQ status or identity; to be trained to care for a child’s needs related to their self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression; and to help a child access appropriate resources, services and activities that support their well being.
The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tyler accused the administration of “trying to shoehorn gender identity into the statutes governing our Nation’s foster care system by requiring States like Texas to provide special treatment and special placements for so-called ‘LGBTQI+’ youth.”
In a footnote, Paxton dismissed the administration’s use of “LGBTQI+” and “similar euphemisms to refer to individuals who identify themselves based on the contested metaphysical concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services receives roughly $432 million a year in federal funding to “support casework services for children in foster care, residential childcare services, and placement services,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the sections under Title IV of the Social Security Act that cover child and family services and federal grants for foster care make no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Title IV’s anti-discrimination provisions do not include protections for sex, much less the derivative categories of gender identity and sexual orientation,” the complaint said. It also said the rule would “exacerbate a growing shortage of foster care providers by compelling states to recruit new providers to comply.”
“The Biden Administration is attempting to hold the Texas foster care system hostage to force unscientific, fringe beliefs about gender upon the entire country,” Paxton said in a statement. “The new rule directly violates federal law and threatens to undermine our vital foster care programs, putting children who need safe, loving homes at risk.”
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
