Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has responded to a defiant decision by the Austin City Council (ACC), which voted on Thursday to ignore a state law which prohibits "gender transitioning or gender reassignment procedure or treatment" for minors under the age of 18.
In a 10-1 vote, the ACC passed the resolution which directs city resources away from SB 14.
Paxton Responds
"On May 2, 2024, the Austin City Council passed a resolution that purportedly directs the city manager and city employees not to comply with Texas’s prohibition of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and invasive surgeries for children who believe their gender is different than their biological sex," Paxton said in response.
"Riddled with problems, the resolution starts with the falsehood that such prohibited treatments have ‘proven to be evidence-based, medically necessary, and lifesaving.’ In addition to a growing body of medical research rejecting such claims, Texas concluded that the proposed treatments for minors are dangerous, and banned the practices by passing SB 14," he said.
Paxton says his office stands ready to ensure Austin follows state law.
"If the City of Austin refuses to follow the law and protect children, my office will consider every possible response to ensure compliance," he said. "Texas municipalities do not have the authority to pick and choose which state laws they will or will not abide by. The people of Texas have spoken, and the Austin City Council must listen."
As the Epoch Times notes further, the resolution was introduced by Council Member Chito Vela, who represents District 4. It was co-sponsored by four other council members—Ryan Alter, Zo Qadri, José Velásquez, and Vanessa Fuentes.
The one no vote was Council Member Mackenzie Kelly of District 6.
“Except to the extent required by law, it is the policy of the City that no City personnel, funds, or resources shall be used to investigate, criminally prosecute, or impose administrative penalties upon: (1) a transgender or nonbinary individual for seeking healthcare, or (2) an individual or organization for providing or assisting with the provision of healthcare to a transgender or nonbinary individual,” the resolution states.
It also directs Austin police to make enforcement of SB 14 their lowest priority.
According to Mr. Paxton, the resolution is nothing more than an “empty political statement” citing that each clause in the resolution directs the city manager to defy SB 14 with the qualifying statement “except to the extent required by law.” He said the ACC would order the city manager and employees to follow the law while pretending to say the opposite.
“The vote by the Austin City Council today to support sex change operations for kids is infuriating but comes at no surprise. Repeatedly, Austin City Council has cared more about virtue signaling than the health and safety of its citizens,” Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of Government Relations for Texas Values, told The Epoch Times via email.
Ms. Castle said: “the resolution by its nature does not address the specific enforcement of law and instead directs entities like the local police department and the district attorney, who were not given enforcement power by SB 14, to ignore the law. The resolution is mostly a shell game to make it seem like Austin City Council will not comply with the law.”
In previous years, Ms. Castle said the ACC’s measures with pro-life laws and defunding the police have directed law enforcement to “either ignore complaints regarding laws on social issues they do not agree with or push them to the bottom of the stack.
“Today’s action signals to the larger Austin community that sex change operations for kids are no big deal, when in fact transitioning a child can be deadly and dangerous,” said Ms. Castle.
A new long-term study out of the Netherlands found many adolescents who have doubts about their identity and gender identity grow out of it. The study also found it is normal to have doubts about one’s identity and it is actually relatively common.
In 2023, Mr. Abbott signed SB 14 into law. The law prohibits any physician or health care provider from “transitioning a child’s biological sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the child or affirming the child ’s perception of the child ’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child ’s biological sex.”
The law prohibits doctors from performing numerous procedures on minors as part of gender transitioning including castration, hysterectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, among others.
Prescription drugs associated with transitioning such as puberty blockers and supraphysiologic doses of testosterone to females or estrogen to males were also prohibited in Texas.
