When Should I Call Child Protective Services On My Neighbors

Almost from the moment he was born, Grayson Briggle had an identity of his own. Past the time he was 3 years old he was consistently referring to himself equally a male child, although he was assigned female person at nascence. He insisted on brusque haircuts and boys' dress.

By the time he got to first grade, his female parent, Amber Briggle, knew information technology was time to face facts. "Are you lot my son?" she asked her 6-year-one-time. The child looked at her and quietly said, "Yes."

That was information technology: Family, teachers, friends' parents, their minister – anybody got briefed. Even though the family lives in largely conservative Denton, Texas, just n of Dallas, the news turned out not to exist that large of a deal. Mainly, considering everyone liked Grayson.

If yous'd been looking at him for the previous three years on a regular ground, the official news of his gender identity didn't exactly come as a shock.

The Texas GOP has become increasingly hardline on civilization war issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights

Grayson is now 14, and as he's grown older, the Texas Republican Political party has steadily grown more conservative. At the end of Feb, with the Texas primary ballot just days away, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement that gender-affirming care for trans children should be considered child corruption.

The Briggles and other families whose trans kids are receiving what doctors and therapists consider appropriate intendance now face investigation by Texas Child Protective Services, raising questions about parents' rights to care for their trans children and the state's right to arbitrate.

Bister Briggle learned of the investigation into her family while she was at her function, soon after Gov. Abbott's statement. She's a pocket-sized business possessor.

"And then I get to the function on Monday, and I'm ready to crank out some payroll because, I'm responsible for paying, you know, 25 people on my team," Amber explains. "And I see the sticky notation with the proper name and number and a message. Information technology says, 'Urgent. Individual.' And I pick information technology upward and I give her a call and say, 'Howdy, my name is Amber and I, you know, got this message from y'all.' And she cut me off and she said, 'My name is so-and-and then, I'm with CPS. And I'm 30 minutes abroad.'"

Briggle says she told the Child Protective Services amanuensis she wouldn't talk without a lawyer. That didn't seem to affair; the amanuensis was on her way.

"And and then I get off the phone and I, like, run down the hall and I found my assistant and I just threw myself in her arms, and I mean, she's tiny." Briggle says.

The daze of the call was about as well much.

"You know, she was physically holding me up and she said, 'What'south incorrect?' And I said, 'It's finally happening.' I said, 'CPS on their fashion and they're going to accept my babies away from me, and I'yard so scared,'" Briggle recalls. "And she held me tighter and she started crying too, and and then I just savage to the floor. I just collapsed."

A Child Protective Services agent interviewed both Amber and her husband, Adam Briggle and interviewed their ii children separately. The questions were cordial, but the family is withal worried. Grayson continues living with his parents, but they fear for the worst — that their kid could exist taken from them. Amber Briggle says the investigation is non concluded and that they're "in a holding pattern, living on borrowed time for at present."

Eighth-grader Grayson Briggle protests for his rights as a transgender person in Texas. — Eighth-grader Grayson Briggle protests for his rights every bit a transgender person in Texas.

The statement centers on whether gender affirming care for trans kids should be investigated as kid abuse

On a recent weekday evening at their habitation in Denton, Grayson's father Adam Briggle is at the stove.

"My kids have to endure through what nosotros phone call 'dad dinners,'" he says. "So tonight information technology'due south cheese ravioli and breadsticks out of a box and broccoli."

When he'southward not preparing dinner, Adam Briggle is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of N Texas. In fact, his university department has issued a statement in back up of the family and of trans children throughout the state.

Adam's son, Grayson, is at present in 8th form. The Briggles' younger child, a daughter, is a quaternary grader in dance and on the swim team. She'south also a Girl Sentinel.

Grayson is a busy kid. He's an A student, a talented gymnast and a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. He says he was inspired by the film Kung Fu Panda. He's plays the cello in the school orchestra and strums the ukulele at home to entertain himself earlier dinner.

And he's got a lot of good friends.

"We stay upwards all night at sleepovers," Grayson explains. "I usually am the first ane to go to sleep because I think they're all crazy staying up all nighttime and not sleeping at all," he says, laughing. "I try to get a petty fleck of sleep at sleepovers."

Amber Briggle has long been the public face of the family's boxing for Grayson's rights. But with the state's decision to employ the Section of Family and Protective Services to investigate them, Adam has joined his wife on the front lines.

"She's the forward leaning one publicly and I play back up and I'one thousand at that place for the kids in the day -to-twenty-four hours level when she has to maybe be out there fighting for their political rights. Now information technology'due south sort of all easily on deck," he says. "What'southward sinking in is the fact that there is a minority of people who are full of ignorance and hate that is knocking on our door."

The family idea they had made headway by introducing their trans son to the Texas chaser general

Amber Briggle has publicly fought for her son Grayson for years, refusing to hide.

In 2016, when Grayson was in 3rd grade, she successfully invited Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton and his wife to their habitation for dinner. She wanted them to see and experience the Briggle family unit for themselves.

"Yous know, Mrs. Paxton brought a freshly baked dessert that was still warm from her oven because they just lived ane county over, which makes us neighbors by Texas standards, right?" Briggle says of that night.

"They were lovely. They watched us appoint with our children. Mr. Paxton and my son exchanged magic tricks. Mrs. Paxton told a funny joke about talking muffins. Yous know, it was like it was just a very wholesome, sweet, dinner."

And as the Paxtons drove away, Amber Briggle said to her husband, "We did it! Problem solved. Mission accomplished."

She thought perhaps they'd changed the chaser general's listen.

"We were and so proud of ourselves," she says. "You lot know, like no 1 got food poisoning and everything went great. And, y'all know, he collection away actually nether a rainbow. There was a rainbow that evening. Nosotros thought, 'Well, this is fantastic!' "

NPR reached out to the governor and attorney general's offices to seek comment just did not receive a response. Child Protective Services does not comment on ongoing investigations.

Investigations have been halted for now, pending a trial this summer

On March 11th, in response to a lawsuit brought past the ACLU and Lambda Legal, State Commune Judge Amy Clark Meachum temporarily stopped Texas from using Kid Protective Services to investigate families with trans children, including the Briggles.

The judge ruled Gov. Greg Abbott'south deportment were "beyond the telescopic of his authority and unconstitutional."

Later that aforementioned day, Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton tweeted, "I'yard highly-seasoned. I'll win this fight to protect our Texas children."

Paxton did appeal the lower court's ruling on investigations, but a Texas appeals court has allowed Judge Meachum'south order to stand.

The instance is slated to go before Judge Meachum in July for trial over whether Texas can apply Child Protective Services to investigate families seeking gender affirming care for their transgender children.

Amber Briggle is adamant to keep to fight the land publicly. But recent weeks have been an ordeal that's not over yet.

"I'm not in a expert place. No," she says. "I'k worried. I'm angry. I'yard aroused that then much of my...like I have ameliorate things to practise right at present than to be the target of someone's political ambitions. Correct? I have better things to do than be picked on by Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton."