EL PASO, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed another lawsuit against a doctor who he claims provided gender transition care to more than 20 minors, violating state law.
Paxton announced the lawsuit on Wednesday and claimed that El Paso Dr. Hector Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist, prescribed puberty blockers and hormones to youths. The suit also alleges Granados falsified medical records, prescriptions and billing records to conceal his actions.
Granados helped establish, in partnership with Texas Tech University, El Paso’s first clinic for transgender care back in 2015, but he now works in private practice.
The patients in the case range from 12 to 17 years old, though a majority of them are 15 or older.
Despite Granados practicing in El Paso and a majority of the minors listed in the lawsuit residing in El Paso County, the case was filed in Kaufman County–located southeast of Dallas–where one of the 21 patients is located.
The state is requesting a $1,000,000 penalty in the case.
The Texas law, which has been in effect since Sept. 1, 2023, prevents transgender people under the age of 18 from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries–even though surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.
“Texas is cracking down on doctors illegally prescribing dangerous ‘gender transition’ drugs to children,” said Paxton in a news release. “State law forbids prescribing these interventions to minors because they have irreversible and damaging effects. Any physician found doing so will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
This is the second lawsuit Paxton has filed against a doctor over the state’s ban on gender transition care for minors. Earlier this month, Paxton sued a Dallas-area physician for allegedly providing hormones to minors as well as falsifying medical records.
Doctors who violate the law could see their medical licenses revoked as well as monetary penalties.
Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the ALCU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, told the Associated Press when Paxton filed the first lawsuit that he was not aware of any other states trying to enforce similar bans. At least 26 other states have passed laws restricting gender transition care for minors.