The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and Lambda Legal are suing to stop Texas from banning child gender modification hormones and surgery.
The lawsuit, filed July 12 in state district court in liberal Travis County, aims to block Senate Bill 14 before it can go into effect on Sept. 1.
“This law would ban necessary and life-saving medical care for Texas’s transgender youth, cut off access to care for adolescent minors already receiving treatment, and require the state to revoke the medical licenses of physicians providing the best standard of care to their trans patients,” according to a statement from ACLU Texas.
Texas GOP lawmaker Jeff Leach posted on Twitter that litigation was expected.
“What should also be expected is the State of Texas vigorously defending this law that protects children from dangerous and irreversible modification and mutilation procedures. We will fight. And we will win,” he wrote.
The GOP-dominated Legislature passed the ban this spring with fierce opposition from Democrats, who made multiple attempts to water down the bill by introducing almost 20 amendments.
The bill prohibits “treatment” for childhood gender dysphoria, including surgeries that sterilize children, such as removing parts of their reproductive systems, mastectomies, and prescribing drugs that induce temporary or permanent infertility, such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, or removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part.
The Texas lawsuit claims that if left untreated, gender dysphoria “can have dire and serious consequences for the health and wellbeing of transgender people, including adolescents. In Texas, adolescents who experience gender dysphoria currently have access to medically necessary care and treatment, which allows them to safely address their gender dysphoria and live as their true selves.”
Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson helped shepherd the bill through the House.
Dr. Oliverson told The Epoch Times there is no high-quality scientific evidence that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery help children overcome gender dysphoria.
Oliverson said that evidence of adverse outcomes for such “treatment” is growing.
“Risks including bone demineralization, abnormalities of brain and cardiovascular development, strokes, blood clots, chronic pain, infertility, and incontinence are known to accompany these treatments for a lifetime,” he said.
Plaintiff lawyers claim “decades of clinical experience and a large body of scientific and medical literature” support procedures on children.
Proponents of transgender procedures have argued that transitioning is safe and positively affects the mental health of those with gender dysphoria. Some claim that if parents deny a child’s chosen identity, it can lead to suicide or worsening mental health.
Opponents say that children are not mature enough to make life-altering decisions that could lead to other medical problems without improving mental stability. They point to “detransitioners” who regret undergoing surgeries and hormones and experience continued psychological and physical repercussions.
Recently, a landmark Denmark study showed that transgender people in the country had 7.7 times the rate of suicide attempts and 3.5 times the rate of suicide deaths compared with the rest of the population.
Transgender people in Denmark died at younger ages than others, whether by suicide or other causes, according to the study.
An Inconvenient Law
The lawsuit alleges that transgender youth are being discriminated against.It says physicians can provide hormone treatments to youths with genetic disorders or other medical conditions but not transgender youth.
One mother’s account in the lawsuit lamented that her 16-year-old daughter, who identified as a boy, had been on hormone blockers and was scheduled for a mastectomy but had to cancel the procedure because of SB 14.
Parents, both teachers, of a 15-year-old boy who identifies as a girl told his parents he was transgender when he was 12, according to the lawsuit.
His parents allowed him to go on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in 2022. They expressed frustration at the inconvenience the new law would impose on their family.
Because of SB 14, the “family is considering whether and how to get ... treatment out of state, which would either require them to split up their family or spend thousands of dollars on out-of-pocket medical treatment and travel.”
