Texas Attorney General Rules Therapists and Counselors Are Subject to Youth Gender Transition Ban

Psychologists, counselors, and social workers in Texas can now be penalized just like physicians for facilitating children's gender transitions, after Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion clarifying that the state's ban on sex-rejecting interventions for minors applies to mental health providers as well as medical doctors. The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council had asked Paxton whether its licensees met the criteria of 'health care provider' under the existing ban — and the attorney general's answer closes what advocates described as a loophole through which therapists were affirming and fast-tracking children toward medical transition without the legal constraints imposed on surgeons and endocrinologists. The ruling arrives in a week already dominated by transgender policy battles — from the Supreme Court blocking California's trans notification ban to the New York Attorney General ordering a Manhattan hospital to resume youth gender treatments — and further cements Texas as the most aggressive state in restricting gender-transition procedures for minors.