Texas AG Paxton sued El Paso physician Dr. Hector Granados over alleged violations of state's transgender-care ban

On October 29, 2024, the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil enforcement petition in Kaufman County district court against Dr. Hector Granados, an El Paso pediatric endocrinologist, accusing him of prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to more than 20 minors for gender transition. The filing alleged Granados falsified medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to conceal the treatments as care for precocious puberty rather than gender dysphoria, in violation of Senate Bill 14, Texas's 2023 ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Paxton's office sought temporary and permanent injunctions against Granados along with more than $1 million in civil penalties and litigation expenses, and asked the court to revoke his medical license. In an October 30 news release, Paxton said the state was "cracking down on doctors illegally prescribing dangerous 'gender transition' drugs to children," and the lawsuit itself described Granados as a "radical gender activist."

The suit was the second Paxton's office filed within two weeks, following an October 17, 2024 suit on similar grounds against Dr. May Lau, an adolescent medicine physician in Dallas — a separate matter not covered by this entry. Although all of the prescriptions and care at issue occurred in El Paso and Granados both lived and practiced there, Paxton's office filed the case roughly 650 miles away in Kaufman County, near Dallas; Granados's attorney moved in November 2024 to transfer venue to El Paso and to dismiss the case, arguing state law required the suit be filed where the care was provided. Granados denied the allegations and said he had stopped providing gender-affirming care before SB 14 took effect in September 2023.

Updates

2025-09-11 — Texas dropped the lawsuit against Granados after review [3, 4]

The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton's office had quietly withdrawn its lawsuit against Granados the week prior, saying in a statement that "no legal violations were found" following a review of his complete medical records. Granados's attorney separately told El Paso Matters the office had reached the same conclusion after reviewing the evidence; the office did not respond to El Paso Matters' request for comment on the dismissal. The parallel suits against Dr. May Lau and Dr. M. Brett Cooper remained ongoing.

2026-03-10 — Follow-up reporting found the enforcement campaign chilled care access for non-transgender patients in El Paso [5]

The Texas Tribune reported that after Paxton accused Granados of providing unlawful transgender care, Granados stopped prescribing puberty blockers altogether, including to patients treated for conditions unrelated to gender dysphoria, such as a seven-year-old El Paso girl with Bardet-Biedl syndrome whose family had to consider moving out of state to continue her treatment. As one of only two pediatric endocrinologists serving El Paso County and parts of West Texas and southern New Mexico, Granados's reduced practice left patients with chronic, unrelated conditions facing reduced access to specialty care even after the lawsuit against him was dismissed.