The Austin City Council passed a resolution ensuring that transgender people may receive gender reassignment therapy and providing protections for healthcare providers as well.
The resolution comes just days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its changes to Title IX, which expanded sex-based discrimination in the federal civil rights law to include transgender students.
“Trans people deserve the right to self-determination,” Councilman Jose “Chito” Vela, one of the resolution’s sponsors, said during a Thursday meeting. “Our state has forced them and their medical providers into hiding, and that is wrong. Austin should not be a party to that any more than we legally have to be.”
The resolution ensures that “no City personnel, funds, or resources shall be used to investigate, criminally prosecute, or impose administrative penalties upon” a transgender or nonbinary person seeking healthcare nor an individual or organization providing healthcare to a transgender person. Furthermore, “the City shall not terminate or limit the eligibility for City funding, such as grants or contracts, to an individual or organization for seeking, providing, or assisting with the provision of healthcare to a transgender or nonbinary individual.”
On Thursday, Paxton said in a statement that Austin’s resolution was “riddled with problems.”
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“If the City of Austin refuses to follow the law and protect children, my office will consider every possible response to ensure compliance,” Paxton said in a statement. “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 Austin City Council must listen.”
The resolution also directs law enforcement to make enforcing Senate Bill 14, which bans certain sex assignment treatment options for minors, their lowest priority. The law took effect Sept. 1 and is under review by the Texas Supreme Court.
