A Dallas doctor faces legal action from Texas over accusations of unlawfully providing cross-sex hormones to transgender youths.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against Dr. May Lau on Thursday, alleging that the physician provided prohibited “gender transition” hormones to over 20 adolescents in violation of a Republican-backed ban that took effect in Texas last year.
This case is the first time a state has attempted to enforce laws that ban transgender medical procedures for minors, the Associated Press reported.
“Today, enforcement begins against those who have violated the law,” the attorney general’s office said in the lawsuit, which was filed in suburban Collin County.
Under Texas law, doctors are not permitted to provide surgery, puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children for the purpose of affirming their self-professed gender identity in a way that is inconsistent with their biological sex.
The lawsuit alleges that Lau, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a specialist in adolescent medicine, illegally prescribed testosterone to at least 21 biological females between the ages of 14 and 17 to transition to male or affirm their gender identity. It refers to Lau as a “scofflaw” and “radical gender activist.”