A federal judge has called Florida policies restricting gender-affirming care for minors and adults “unconstitutional,” permanently blocking the state’s policies from being enforced. Judge Robert L. Hinkle of Federal District Court in Tallahassee ruled that the law stripped parents of their rights to make medical decisions for their transgender children. He added that bans on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors “even when medically appropriate” for treatment of “gender dysphoria” is “unconstitutional.”
BREAKING: A federal judge has blocked Florida’s transgender youth care ban for minors and several restrictions for adults.
The judge wrote that bans on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors is “unconstitutional.” https://t.co/944LL3WwY9 pic.twitter.com/Oa2914fdPg — ABC News (@ABC) June 11, 2024
“Gender identity is real,” wrote Judge Hinkle, and that a “widely accepted standard of care” includes puberty blockers and hormone treatments that Florida unlawfully banned.
“The state of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity.”
“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender.
“In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The ban on this care for minors was first enacted in March 2023 through rules adopted by the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine at the urging of Gov. Ron DeSantis. SB 254, which was passed by the legislature, signed by the governor, and took effect in May 2023.
A federal judge ruled that Florida could not “prohibit transgender minors from receiving specific kinds of widely accepted gender-affirming medical care.” https://t.co/vUzRiWBdZf pic.twitter.com/028DgdBGa2
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 11, 2024
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