A federal judge in Florida on Tuesday temporarily blocked the enforcement of a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, allowing parents to continue accessing medical care, including hormones and puberty blockers, for their kids while the legal challenges move forward.
Rules drastically limiting the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors were adopted by the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine in November 2022.
Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill that codified the policy into law with added criminal and civil penalties. Senate Bill 254 was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as part of a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills dubbed by critics as the “slate of hate.”
Late last month, families of three trans kids in the Sunshine State asked a federal judge to block enforcement of SB 254, which is “a very extreme version” of the ban, Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), told the Us.Mistertruth. last month.
“The state legislature passed the law imposing criminal penalties on doctors for providing [gender-affirming] care,” he added. “It’s unheard of, and it’s very harmful.”
The parents — represented by several LGBTQ civil rights organizations including the NCLR and the Human Rights Campaign — blamed Florida Republicans for forcing them to “watch their kids suffer rather than get them the safe and effective healthcare they need” while trying to score political points.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle sided with the families and issued a preliminary injunction allowing them to provide necessary care for their kids.
Calling the ban “an exercise in politics, not good medicine,” Hinkle wrote in his 44-page ruling that “gender identity is real,” and that treatment for gender dysphoria includes mental health therapy as well as hormone treatments and puberty blockers. But Florida “has adopted a statute and rules that prohibit these treatments even when medically appropriate,” he added.
Though the ruling only applies to the three families that petitioned the judge, it indicates “they are likely to succeed in their claims that SB 254 and the Boards of Medicine rules unconstitutionally strip them of the right to make informed decisions about their children’s medical treatment and violate the equal protection rights of transgender youth by denying them medically necessary, doctor-recommended healthcare,” the NCLR said in a statement.
One of the plaintiffs, who chose not to use her name in court papers, said her “entire family is breathing a huge sigh of relief knowing we can now access the treatment that we know will keep Susan healthy and allow her to continue being the happy, confident child she has been.”
The challenge to the ban is ”likely to proceed quickly to trial,” according to NCLR.