Attorney General Ken Paxton has successfully blocked a controversial legal ruling from the Biden administration that would have forced foster care providers to embrace and affirm gender identity ideologies.
Paxton’s recent legal win hopes to ensure that foster children throughout the state are not subjected to any federal mandates that could compromise their well-being or their biological parent’s rights under the guise of gender policies or woke movements.
In September 2024, Paxton filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), its Secretary Xavier Becerra, and other members of the Biden-Harris Administration, challenging a rule that threatened federal funding for foster care programs unless they conformed to specific gender identity policies.
The rule would have required agencies to make sure that foster care placements “affirm” a child’s “self-identified LGBTQI+” status, penalizing refusal to comply with what Paxton described as “radical and experimental” ideologies. Foster care agencies or providers who disagreed with pushing the progressive gender ideologies previously faced retaliation charges and risked losing critical funding, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
The legal battle against the Biden-era ruling hit a turning point this week when a federal district court ruled in favor of Paxton, siding with his claims that the HHS did not have the authority to impose such a sweeping and controversial policy against children.
“This is a tremendous victory for Texas families, parental rights, and the rule of law. The Biden administration had no authority to force radical gender ideology onto vulnerable children and demand compliance from foster care providers under threat of lost funding,” said Paxton.
Paxton would go on to applaud the future impact of the judge’s ruling, arguing that Biden’s prior policies jeopardized the safety and mental health of foster children by prioritizing gender identity over the true needs of kids in the system.
“I will always fight to protect our values and ensure that Texas children are not used as pawns in the federal government’s social experiments,” Paxton added.