Texas abandons the trial against the doctor accused of having provided care for transgender young people

Dallas – One of the first doctors in the country accused of providing care for young transgender people under the GOP prohibitions did not violate the law, said the Texas prosecutor’s office Ken Paxton, almost a year after the State continued the doctor.

Dr. Hector Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist in El Paso, was called “scofflaw” last year by the Paxton office in a trial which accused him of falsification of medical files and violation of a prohibition of Texas which took effect in 2023. Granados and two other suppliers.

Business against other doctors, both in Dallas, remain in progress. But Paxton’s office quietly withdrew his trial last week against Granados, saying in a statement that “no legal violation was found” following an “examination of proofs and complete medical records of Granados”.

Granados, who says that Paxton’s office never held his hand before continuing him last October, said he wanted the state to show him first that he had ceased to provide affirmative care to young people before the law takes effect.

“It was just outside, then we had to do everything afterwards,” said Granados in an interview.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in June that states can prohibit medical care affirming sexes for transgender minors, and at least 27 states have adopted laws or prohibiting care. Although people accused of having violated prohibitions are faced with criminal accusations in certain states, they do not do so in Texas, where sanctions rather expose providers to steep fines and revocation of their medical licenses.

Paxton’s office said in a statement that Dr. May Lau and Dr. Mr. Brett Cooper, the other accused doctors, “would face justice for having injured the children of Texas physically and mentally”. Their lawyers did not comment on Wednesday.

“The Attorney General Paxton will continue to strengthen the full force of the law against delusional health professionals and left to force” gender “madness on our children,” said Paxton’s office.

Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump, sought to position himself as a national leader among the ascendant of the difficult GOP on the right and presents himself for the American Senate.

Trump, in his second mandate, launched a large accusation against the rights of transgender people, going to years of legal and political gains for transgender Americans. Even in states where care is authorized under state law, major hospitals and hospital systems said they stopped or restricted care.

Harper Seldin, lawyer for the LGBTQ of the American American Liberties Union LGBTQ & HIV project, said that even when a trial is abandoned, it is always necessary to “a huge number” on those who must defend themselves.

“I think it continues to be better understood as part of the Texas AG campaign to intimidate medical providers,” he said.

Granados said he was meticulous in the cessation of the stupid care for young people before the prohibition of Texas. He said that before the prohibition, the treatment of young transgender people was only an extension of his practice which deals with young people with diabetes, growth problems and early puberty.

He said that after the ban, he continued to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy of hormones, but that these treatments were not for gender transition. Granados said they were for young people with endocrine disorders, who occur when hormone levels are too high or too low.

The Texas trial against Granados described it as a “scofflaw which harms the health and safety of children in Texas”. He referred to a 2015 press article on transgender care that cited granados and medical articles he had written on the subject. Details on nameless patients, including their age and what had been prescribed to them, including testosterone.

In a judicial document filed in the Cooper case, a lawyer for the Paxton office said that they had assigned providers’ reports for testosterone prescriptions from the Texas prescription monitoring program.

Granados lawyer Mark Bracken said that after entering a protective order agreed with the state, they were able to produce patient files confidentially to show that Granados had respected the law.

Peter Salib, deputy professor by law at the University of Houston Law Center, said that it was “unusual” that a state abandons a case due to the lack of violations after having filed a complaint.

“They have a lot of opportunities to discover what is going on before deciding to get a trial,” he said.

Granados said it was grateful to no longer have the trial in mind.

“It always gives you an impact and what you feel,” he said.