In an 8-1 ruling on Friday, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on the gender manipulation of minors. The decision leaves in place a law that has been in effect since Sept. 1, 2023. The law (Senate Bill 14) prevents transgender minors from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers, and often-irreversible "transition surgeries."
The legal group Texas Values was the leading law and policy organization advocating for the passage of SB 14. Jonathan Covey, director of policy at Texas Values, tells AFN the state's highest court confirmed the solid grounding of this law.
"No child deserves a false sense of hope from this unscientific idea that they're not really the sex that they're born," he states. "A boy is a boy; a girl is a girl – and feelings and desires and drugs can't change this immutable genetic truth, no matter how we feel."
"This decision affirms what we already know: that doctors cannot mutilate children in the name of healthcare," the attorney adds.
In their opinion, the eight justices said they conclude the legislature made a "rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children" while acknowledging the newness of gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment. While Judge Debra Lehrmann called it "cruel" and "unconstitutional," the other justices said the legislature has "express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine."
"In terms of appeal, this is done because the Texas Supreme Court has spoken and the decision itself is basically vacating a decision by the lower court, where this lawsuit started, to put in place an injunction on the law," Covey adds. "So, when the Travis County District Court put the injunction in place, the attorney general's office appealed to the Supreme Court directly."
Texas is the largest of at least 25 states that have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-manipulation medical treatments for transgender minors.
