TEXAS — The Texas Supreme Court upheld a state law last week which makes gender transition care for transgender minors illegal. Once the law took effect last September, many families left the state or found other treatment options.

What You Need To Know

  • The Texas Supreme Court in June upheld a state law that prohibits gender transition care for minors

  • That includes hormone therapies, puberty blockers and surgery

  • Texas is home to an estimated 30,000 people aged 13 to 17 who identify as transgender 

  • Many of those youth are struggling to locate resources 

Jutin Galicz, co-owner of The Little Gay Shop, carefully curates a safe space for people of all ages in the LGBTQ community.

“If you look at kind of our nightlife scene or if you look at some of these other spaces, they’re just targeted towards different audiences,” said Galicz.

Galicz believes queer youth are under attack in Texas and offers a refuge in his storefront and when he takes The Little Gay Shop on the road.

“We did a Pride event down in San Marcos when we had first started the business. And we had like 12- to 14-year-old kids coming up and spending their allowance on getting a pronoun button that fit their pronouns,” Galicz said. 

After protests at the state capitol, Senate bill 14 was signed into law last September. The law prevents transgender youth from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and surgeries for the purpose of changing genders. 

“In many cases the children will outgrow those feelings,” said Andrew Brown, vice president of policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Many conservatives say the Texas Supreme Court made the right decision in June to uphold the state’s ban on this medical care.

“Good mental health counseling that helps them wrestle with these feeling and helps them develop and acceptance of their biological reality is infinitely more effective,” said Brown.

According to the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, nearly 30,000 people aged 13 to 17 in Texas identify as transgender.

The Transgender Education Network of Texas says many families have moved or take frequent trips out of state to access treatment, but those that can’t afford to travel struggle to with suicidal thoughts.

“Kids are frustrated that they can’t just be themselves and they can’t just, you know, access their health care like they used to,” said Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy adviser for the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

The case in Texas is done, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Tennessee case that also questions the constitutionality of restricting minors’ access to gender transition care. 

“I fully expect the Supreme Court to agree with the appeals court’s rulings and ultimately determine that the Tennessee law and others like it are constitutional,” said Brown.

Arguments in the Tennessee case could be heard in this fall, with a decision expected by the spring of 2025. LGBTQ advocates in Texas are waiting anxiously to see if there will be a decision in their favor.