Topline
A federal district judge ruled Tuesday that key elements of Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors and similar restrictions for adults are unconstitutional—blocking their enforcement and delivering a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has approved an onslaught of legislation restricting LGBTQ+ rights.
“The State of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and ... [+]
Key Facts
U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled the ban is unconstitutional at least in part because it applies even when gender-affirming care for minors is “medically appropriate,” according to the judgment.
Hinkle said in the ruling that “gender identity is real”—something he has emphasized in at least one past ruling—and the gender-affirming care the state sought to ban is often recognized as “proper treatment” for people suffering gender dysphoria due to their identity not matching their sex at birth.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that there was no medical basis for the ban or restrictions, it limited their parental rights to make medical decisions for their children and that the state enacted the law out of discrimination and animus—and Hinkle seemingly agreed, writing “it is clear that anti-transgender animus motivated bill sponsors and at least a significant number of legislators.”
DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern told Forbes in a statement the state will appeal the decision, saying the DeSantis administration disagrees “with the Court’s erroneous rulings on the law, on the facts, and on the science,” adding “Florida will continue to fight to ensure children are not chemically or physically mutilated in the name of radical, new age ‘gender ideology.’”
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Crucial Quote
“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender,” Hinkle wrote. “In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished.”
Key Background
The law banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth and required things like X-rays, follow-up visits and laboratory testing “more often than medically indicated” for youth already getting treatment who are grandfathered in. The law also said the medical license of health care providers giving youth banned treatment could be suspended, and restricted who could provide medical care, limiting it in some cases to just physicians as opposed to other care providers. DeSantis signed the law in May 2023 as part of a number of bills restricting LGBTQ+ rights that he enacted while running to be the Republican presidential nominee. Last June, Hinkle temporarily blocked the bill pending the outcome of a trial, which took place in December, saying Florida’s legal guidelines were partly to discourage “individuals from pursuing their honest gender identities.”
Big Number
24. That’s how many states have passed legislation that “bans best practice medication and surgical care for transgender youth,” according to the think tank Movement Advancement Project, though not all bans are currently in effect.
