Judge blocks ban on transgender care for minors in Kentucky
The news
A federal judge temporarily blocked the enactment of part of a state law in Kentucky that would ban the prescription and administration of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people under the age of 18. The judge said prosecutors would likely succeed in challenging the law on constitutional grounds.
The preliminary injunction was issued on Wednesday afternoon by Judge David J. Hale of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. It comes nearly two months after the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky filed a lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender children and their parents.
Judge Hale, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, said in his ruling that, based on the evidence, the treatments prohibited by the law are “medically appropriate and necessary for some transgender children,” according to major medical organizations.
Background: A bill on medical care, schools and toilets
Other states have recently passed clusters of bills each regulating the lives of transgender minors in some way, but Kentucky lawmakers took a different approach and bundled numerous restrictions into a single measure, known as Senate Bill 150. rights groups describe it as one of the most extreme anti-trans bills in the country.
The law prohibits doctors in Kentucky from performing gender transition surgery or administering puberty blockers or hormone therapy to people under the age of 18.
It also prohibits school districts from requiring or recommending that a student be referred to with a pronoun that “doesn’t match a student’s biological sex”, and prohibits transgender students from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. By law, no lessons on sexuality can be taught in schools before the sixth grade, and lessons on gender identity or sexual orientation, among other things, are not prohibited in any classroom.
The Republican-controlled state legislature passed the bill in March. It was vetoed by Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who said that it allowed “too much government interference in personal health care issues”. But the legislature overruled his veto, with Republicans defending the legislation saying it would protect child safety.
Most of the bill took effect immediately, but some provisions were set to take effect on June 29.
The ACLU charged in Maywho seeks to block provisions banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for underage transgender people, saying the measure “infringes on family privacy and prevents doctors from doing their jobs”.
Why it matters: The latest win for transgender rights advocates
Kentucky’s law is part of a national wave of laws recently passed by Republican lawmakers that focus on issues such as gender and identity. At least 17 states this year passed bans or restrictions on transitional care for young people.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed legislation in May making his state the largest to ban menopausal surgery and hormone and puberty-blocking treatments for transgender children.
Lawsuits against the bans have been filed in several states; many of the challenges, such as the one in Kentucky, are still in process. But when judges have expressed their views, they have often sided with transgender rights advocates.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Indiana largely blocked that state’s ban on transitional medical care for minors. Last month, a federal judge in Alabama ordered the state not to enforce parts of a new law that made it a felony for healthcare providers to prescribe hormones or puberty-suppressing drugs to children and teens, while a challenge to the law makes its way the courts.
And last week, a federal judge in Arkansas, the first state to enact a ban on medical care for transgender minors, struck down the law, marking a major victory for transgender minors and their families.
The Arkansas ruling was closely watched as a test of whether the state bans could withstand legal challenges.
What’s next
With Judge Hale’s order not allowing portions of the Kentucky law to go into effect for the time being, the ACLU’s legal challenge against the law will continue. Healthcare options for transgender youth will continue to be available in the state as the lawsuit continues. The other provisions of the law remain in effect.
“This is a victory, but it’s only the first step,” Corey Shapiro, the ACLU’s legal director in Kentucky, said Wednesday. We are prepared, he added, to “do everything in our power to ensure that access to medical care is permanently secured in Kentucky.”