Leading LGBTQ group sues Texas attorney general over demands for records

FILE PHOTO: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks ahead of a rally held by former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Robstown, Texas, U.S., October 22, 2022. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – PFLAG, a leading U.S. LGBTQ advocacy group, has sued Texas’ Republican attorney general for demanding information about the group’s work with families of transgender minors seeking gender-affirming treatments, such as puberty blockers and hormones.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday evening in Travis County state court, PFLAG called Attorney General Ken Paxton’s demands “a clear and unmistakable overreach…in retaliation for PFLAG successfully standing up for its members.”

Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PFLAG is also a plaintiff, along with several families of transgender adolescents, in lawsuits challenging Texas’ ban on gender-affirming care for minors and a rule requiring the state’s child protection agency to investigate families seeking such care.

PFLAG won preliminary orders blocking enforcement of the policies in both cases, which Paxton’s office is appealing to the state’s Supreme Court. The gender-affirming care ban has been allowed to take effect during the appeal, while investigations of families remain blocked for now.

Paxton’s office on Feb. 9 demanded information from PFLAG about its communications concerning families’ plans to access gender-affirming care, saying they were part of an investigation into possible violations of the state’s consumer protection laws. The demand letters, which are attached to the lawsuit, did not elaborate on exactly how the consumer protection law might be violated.

PFLAG said the demands were actually an effort to get around an automatic pause on discovery in the earlier lawsuits.

It said the demands would violate its rights of free speech and free assembly, and could expose the identities of patients and families who have sought information about gender-affirming care.

Texas is one of more than 20 Republican-led states that have sought to restrict the treatments. Many have prompted legal challenges, and courts have been divided on whether to allow them.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)