By Vy Tran
Austin, TX — The Supreme Court of Texas last week blocked attempts of overturning Senate Bill 14 by reversing a lower court’s ruling for Loe v. Texas, and, because of that, anti-transgender laws will continue to be enforced statewide, according to the ACLU.
“Our government shouldn’t deprive trans youth of the health care that they need to survive and thrive — while offering that exact same health care to everyone else. Texas politicians’ obsession with attacking trans kids and their families is needlessly cruel,” said Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights at ACLU of Texas.
Hall promised, “We will not back down until our trans youth have the health care they deserve and our state is a welcoming place to all.”
The ACLU noted the court ruled against five Texas families with transgender youth, three medical providers, and two national organizational plaintiffs who filed the “original challenge to S.B. 14 in July, concluding that the law is constitutional and that the plaintiffs are powerless to challenge it.”
The controversial S.B. 14 currently bans “necessary and life-saving medical care in Texas for the treatment of gender dysphoria for transgender youth” and “requires the Texas Medical Board to revoke the medical licenses of physicians who provide the best standard of care to their transgender patients,” said medical provider plaintiffs in the case.
The ACLU reported the bill’s passage had resulted in “families splitting up or planning to travel out of Texas to continue medically necessary treatments for their children.”
The ACLU also emphasized families are suing “pseudonymously to protect themselves and their children, who are transgender Texans between the ages of 10 and 17.”
“We are profoundly disappointed by the Texas Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a ban rooted in prejudice and discrimination against trans youth,” said Alex Sheldon, GLMA (Gay & Lesbian Medical Association) executive director, adding, “This ruling not only endangers the lives of these vulnerable individuals but also dismisses significant medical evidence supporting their care.
Sheldon argued, “Today, the trans community was abandoned by the very institutions designed to protect them, and health professionals were denied their ability to perform their duties based on the best scientific evidence available, free from political interference.”
In July 2023, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, ACLU National, Transgender Law Center, and the pro bono law firms of Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, LLP, sued on behalf of five families with transgender children to block enforcement of S.B. 14, according to the facts of the original case of Loe v. Texas.
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In addition to the five families, the case noted the two national organizations, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and GLMA, were also plaintiffs in Loe v. Texas.
PFLAG National is significant as the nation’s first and largest organization dedicated to “supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ people and those who love them,” while GLMA is the oldest and largest association of LGBTQ and allied health professionals, including those who treat LGBTQ patients, said ACLU.
“Every Texan, transgender or not, deserves the freedom to access the healthcare they need when they need it,” said Brian K. Bond, CEO of PFLAG National. “To transgender Texans of all ages, PFLAG has your back. We’re going to continue to fight to ensure you are safe, celebrated, affirmed and loved.”
GLMA also shared the same stance.
“The trans community was abandoned by the very institutions designed to protect them, and health professionals were denied their ability to perform their duties based on the best scientific evidence available, free from political interference,” said Sheldon, GLMA executive director.
In Aug. 2023, Travis County District Court granted a “temporary injunction to pause enforcement of the ban,” according to the ACLU, but the state defendants appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, and the law went into effect on Sept. 1 of 2023.
However, since the reversal on Jun. 28, 2024, the medical provider plaintiffs who work for a large Texas children’s hospital had been forced to “stop providing treatments they know are medically necessary for their transgender patients or risk losing their medical licenses,” wrote the ACLU.
“It is impossible to overstate the devastating impact of this cruel and arbitrary ruling on Texas transgender youth and the families that love and support them,” said Karen Loewy, senior counsel and director of constitutional law practice, Lambda Legal.
“Instead of leaving medical decisions concerning minor children where they belong, with their parents and their doctors, the Court here has elected to let politicians – in blatant disregard for the overwhelming medical consensus – determine the allowed course of treatment, threatening the health and the very lives of Texas transgender youth. We will continue to fight measures like SB14. These youth and their families deserve no less,” she said.
Other advocates announced their stances to continue fighting for the overturn of S.B. 14.
“S.B. 14 goes against trusted medical advice and is a strain on transgender youth, their families who love them, and the providers who support them. All Texans, no matter what they look like or the neighborhood they live in, should know that we will continue to work alongside our partners to fight for the rights of trans Texans and their families,” said Lynly Egyes, legal director at Transgender Law Center.
Sheldon of GLMA insisted, “This fight is far from over. We will continue to challenge unjust measures like S.B. 14 and to defend the rights of all trans youth to access the essential care they need and deserve.”
