Dr. Ximena Lopez gets TRO, can continue treating patients in need
DALLAS – A court in Dallas County has issued a temporary restraining order that authorizes physicians at Children’s Medical Center to resume providing gender-affirming care, including hormone treatment and puberty blockers, for transgender youth who were previously treated under the banner of the GENECIS clinic.
The ruling comes as part of a legal case the clinic’s founder, Dr. Ximena Lopez, filed against Children’s Health of Dallas.
“My client never wanted to sue anyone,” says Dr. Lopez’s attorney, Charla Aldous of Aldous\Walker in Dallas. “But UT Southwestern and others put up roadblocks to keep us from finding out the truth about who closed down GENECIS. That’s fine. We’ll do this another way and in the process, we’ll take care of kids who need this treatment.”
According to Children’s and UT Southwestern’s own marketing, the GENECIS clinic was the first and largest program in the southwest providing care to transgender youth. A joint operation between Children’s and UT Southwestern, the clinic provided both counseling and medication – puberty blockers and hormone therapy – to young people experiencing gender dysphoria, defined as the stress a patient feels when the gender assigned at birth is not the gender with which they identify.
Dr. Lopez, who has been seeing such patients for over a decade, says the treatment GENECIS provided can be lifesaving. Without it, transgender youth are prone to depression and suicide at rates much higher than the norm.
However, amid criticism of such therapy from conservative politicians, UT Southwestern and Children’s shut down the GENECIS clinic in the fall of 2021. Dr. Lopez and others at the clinic were told they could only treat existing patients and that they could not provide any gender-affirming care to new ones.
“The hospital and UT Southwestern were very proud of this program and they should be,” Dr. Lopez says. “But all of that changed when this became a political issue rather than a medical one. I’ve seen patients across all sectors of society from families conservative, liberal and everything in between. They need this care.”
The Aldous\Walker LLP law firm represents clients in civil litigation, and specializes in high-profile, high-stakes cases. Learn more about the firm at http://www.aldouslaw.com.
Contact:
Mark Annick
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