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Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s effort to crack down on most health-care practices for transgender children was temporarily blocked statewide by a judge who ruled the Republican exceeded his authority. Abbott’s Feb. 22 directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to consider gender-affirming care for minors to be “child abuse” violates the separation of powers because it has the effect of a new law “without new legislation,” Judge Amy Clark Meachum said Friday in Austin. (Larson, 3/11)

Another fight over LGBTQ rights is playing out in Texas, where companies including Apple, Alphabet, Johnson & Johnson, Macy's and REI have signed onto an ad condemning an order by Gov. Greg Abbott that equates gender-affirming health care for transgender teenagers to child abuse. "Discrimination is bad for business," declare the digital ads and full-page advertisement in Friday's Dallas Morning News. (Gibson, 3/11)

Disney announced on Friday that it would pause all political donations in Florida in the wake of a controversial state bill that restricts discussion of LGBTQ issues in public schools. Over the last few weeks, the company had received criticism for remaining silent about what critics call the “don’t say gay” bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). In a statement sent to employees on Friday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek also announced that the company would increase support for advocacy groups fighting similar laws elsewhere (such as one recently introduced in Georgia) and would reassess Disney’s political donation policies. (Ables, 3/12)

When some of the most powerful Republicans in Texas began targeting the transgender community in 2017, they found the notion — initially — hard to sell. The conservative grassroots were all for legislation regulating transgender people’s bathroom use, the first hard legislative push by state leadership to limit the rights of that community. But state House leaders didn’t seem to have the stomach for it, and efforts in the Capitol failed. Enter Jeff Younger. The North Texas dad was sounding the alarm on social media and his blog about his bitter public custody battle over 7-year-old twins with his estranged wife, a pediatrician. The dispute focused on the social gender transition of one twin, who was assigned male at birth but lived as a girl at the mother’s house. (Harper, 3/14)

Like other high school seniors, Charlie Apple, 18, has a lot going on. He’s studying for an Advanced Placement exam in English literature. He leads the organization for queer students at his high school in Corpus Christi. After he graduates in June, he intends to study sociology at the University of North Texas in Denton. Apple, who came out as transgender at 13, testified before the Texas Legislature while in Austin in August, opposing a bill that would have classified certain kinds of gender-affirming health care as a form of child abuse. He returned to the capital on Sunday to speak on a panel at the South by Southwest festival. (Chan, 3/13)