Newspapers in Texas report that social workers, tasked with investigating families of kids who seek gender-affirming care, are being ordered to keep their work secret, making no written communications that might be exposed to public scrutiny. "This will get messy", one supervisor reportedly told them.
Those secrecy efforts came as workers inside the agency raised concerns about the effect of the investigations on targeted families and threatened to resign, according to the reports. Some have questioned the political motivations behind the probes, which were ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in February. The Dallas Morning News, which reported the news first, based its investigation on its own open records request, while the Tribune based its reporting on 900 pages of documents obtained by watchdog group American Oversight. The records obtained by both news organizations reveal that DFPS officials told employees not to communicate about cases via email or text — even with families under investigation. Agency officials informed workers they would receive case assignments pertaining to the directive over the phone, according to the Tribune.
While Texas's attempt to keep its anti-trans pogrom out of the news obviously hasn't worked, it does mean that families of trans youngsters are being investigated in secret, without notification or records being kept. The more you think about it, the more disturbing it gets.