An Austin court ruling on Monday blocks Texas from accessing records on transgender children maintained by a national LGBTQ+ organization.
Judge Amy Clark Meachum from Travis County’s 201st Civil District Court issued a temporary injunction against the Texas Attorney General’s Office and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton has sent requests for information to numerous facilities, including hospitals and clinics, to release documents on transgender youth. The request falls under Senate Bill 14, passed last year, which bans certain types of child transgender hormone usage.
Senior counsel Paul Castillo, an attorney representing the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG, told KERA that the court’s quick decision was unexpected.
“It was important for PFLAG to convey just how disruptive these demands were to their mission, where they are providing a safe space and peer support,” Castillo said.
Castillo added that the Texas law and the efforts of Paxton to enforce the law have impacted PFLAG membership.
“Membership and participation in those meetings has decreased since the demands have been issued,” Castillo said. “Volunteer chapter leaders are moving meetings from public libraries to private homes. There is reluctance to secure and obtain sign-in information from members because parents and families fear that the Office of the Attorney General is collecting information about who these trans and non-binary young people are in Texas.”
According to a statement from Paxton, PFLAG initially filed suit against Paxton over his office’s demands for records relating to “contingency plans,” “alternative avenues,” and “affirming general practitioners.”
“Texas passed SB 14 to protect children from damaging, unproven medical interventions with catastrophic lifelong consequences for their health,” Paxton said. “Any organization seeking to violate this law, commit fraud, or weaponize science and medicine against children will be held accountable.”
Castillo claims Paxton’s document requests amount to intimidation. The attorney general has sent letters requesting information to hospitals as far away as Seattle, Washington, which the legal team says shows an effort to dissuade hospitals from providing care to children who live in Texas.
“PFLAG was incredibly brave and it’s continuing stepping up on behalf of PFLAG members all across Texas that continue to be attacked and bullied by the state of Texas and the attorney general,” Castillo said.
The law has been under fire since its inception. In August 2023, a Texas court filed an injunction against SB 14, stating that it likely violated the Texas Constitution. The Texas Supreme Court put a pause on the injunction, allowing the law to go into effect in September.
A multi-author report on the legal challenges published by McDermott, Will, & Emery said Texas has also sent letters to a telehealth facility in Georgia called QueerMed. That operation has since informed Texas that it will not treat youths from the state.
“The OAG has signaled aggressive enforcement of SB 14 by initiating previous investigations into Texas-based providers, including Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston,” McDermott, Will, & Emery stated.
“However, the demands to Seattle Children’s and QueerMed represent a clear attempt by the OAG to step up its enforcement efforts by attempting to target out-of-state providers,” they added.
