, SB 14 means a formal ban on that care is now officially on the books. In addition to being the largest state to pass a trans healthcare ban, Texas also has one of the largest documented populations of trans youth in the country. The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+-focused research center at UCLA,Advocates immediately slammed the ban.
“This bill exposes the utter hypocrisy of the right and shows that they will violate our personal freedoms and civil liberties to serve their culture wars at all costs,” Benavidez said. “While the governor and his extremist allies spout hate and sew division, they avoid tackling real threats to our children, like gun violence. We refuse to be distracted from their party’s myriad controversies.
against SB 14 when the Texas legislature passed it earlier this month. In a statement, the legal organizations wrote that Texas lawmakers were “hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth, in direct opposition to the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as appropriate and necessary.”
“Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers,” the organizations wrote. “Medically necessary health care is a critical part of helping transgender adolescents succeed in school, establish healthy relationships with their friends and family, and live authentically as themselves.
The ACLU of Texas reaffirmed that it would be taking legal action against SB 14 Friday, and emphasized that the law does not go into effect until September 1. “We are doing everything in our power to preserve access to this life-saving, evidence-based health care beyond that date,” it