Texas has quietly withdrawn its lawsuit against a pediatric endocrinologist accused of violating the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, finding no evidence of wrongdoing nearly a year after it sued Hector Granados in one of the first challenges of its kind.
Texas’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, sued Granados last October, calling the El Paso physician a “scofflaw who is harming the health and safety of Texas children.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Texas district court, accused Granados of flouting a 2022 state law barring health care providers from administering hormones, puberty blockers and rare surgical procedures as treatment for minors’ gender dysphoria — severe psychological distress that stems from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth.
The complaint said Granados had intentionally falsified medical and billing records to mislead Texas pharmacies and insurance providers into providing the medications in violation of the state’s law. Granados, one of three Texas physicians facing legal action from the state for providing gender-affirming care to adolescents, was not contacted by Paxton’s office before the lawsuit was filed, according to court papers, out of concern that Granados would destroy or alter relevant records.
Granados told the nonprofit newsroom El Paso Matters in January that he ceased care for minors after the Legislature adopted the law, Senate Bill 14, in May 2023. The measure took effect that September, after a ruling by Texas’s Supreme Court.
In an email on Thursday, a spokesperson for Paxton said “no legal violations” were found following “a thorough review of the evidence and Granados’ complete medical records—which he provided in full cooperation with the investigation.”
A notice of nonsuit was then filed, the spokesperson said, “ensuring that the Office of the Attorney General is able to focus on other ongoing cases against doctors who illegally provided harmful ‘transition’ treatments and drugs to children.”
That includes cases against two other Texas doctors, May Lau and M. Brett Cooper, both of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, the spokesperson said. “Attorney General Paxton will continue to bring the full force of the law against the delusional, left-wing medical professionals guilty of forcing ‘gender’ insanity on our children,” they said.
Neither Granados nor spokespeople for UT Southwestern were immediately reachable for comment.
Laws adopted by more than half the nation since 2021 ban gender-affirming care for minors, threatening doctors who violate them with the loss of their medical licenses, steep fines and even jailtime, in some cases. The Supreme Court ruled in June that states can ban treatment for minors, deciding that Tennessee’s prohibition does not constitute sex discrimination.
Major professional medical groups, including the American Medical Association, have said gender-affirming care for transgender youth and adults is medically necessary and can be lifesaving.
