Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Florida Law of 2023 which blocked gender-affirming care for transgender minors and severely restricted such treatment for adults, deeming the statute unconstitutional.
Senior Judge Robert Hinkle said the state went too far in prohibiting transgender minors from being prescribed puberty blockers and hormone treatments with their parents’ permission. It also prevented the state from requiring that transgender adults only receive treatment from a doctor and not a registered nurse or other qualified doctor. And banned the ban on online treatment for transgender adults.
Hinkle said transgender people have a constitutional right to the legitimate treatment they need and, citing the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., compared those who oppose it to those who once opposed equality for minorities and women.
“Some transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position, just as some once invoked religion to support their racism or misogyny,” Hinkle wrote in his 105-page decision. “Transgender opponents are, of course, free to maintain their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just because they are transgender.
“Over time, discrimination against transgender individuals will decrease, just as racism and misogyny have decreased,” he continued. “To paraphrase a civil rights advocate from an earlier era, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office criticized Hinkle’s decision, issuing a statement calling it “erroneous” and vowing to appeal.
“Through their elected representatives, the people of Florida acted to protect the children of this state, and the Court erred in ignoring their wishes,” the statement said. “As we have seen here in Florida, in the United Kingdom and across Europe, there is no good evidence to support the chemical and physical mutilation of children. These procedures cause permanent and life-altering damage to children, and history will look back on this fad with horror.”
But those who sued the State celebrated the decision.
Lucien Hamel, a transgender adult, issued a statement saying, “I am so relieved that the court saw that there is no medical basis for this law – it was passed just to target trans people like me and try to drive us out of Florida.”
“This is my home. I’ve lived here my whole life,” he said. “This is my son’s home. I can’t just uproot my family and move to the other side of the country. I’m relieved to be able to have one more get the health care I need here in Florida.”
The mother of one of the children who sued said: “This ruling means I won’t have to watch my daughter suffer needlessly because I can’t give her the care she needs.”
“Seeing Susan’s fear regarding this ban was one of the most difficult experiences we have faced as parents,” the woman said. She was identified in court documents only as Jane Doe and her daughter as Susan Doe to protect her privacy. “All we wanted was to take away that fear and help her continue to be the happy, confident child she is now.”
DeSantis signed the law last year as he prepared for a presidential campaign heavily based on culture wars.
“We’ve never done this in all of human history until, what, two weeks ago? Now, is that a thing? he told supporters as he signed the bill. “Are they making third graders declare pronouns? Let’s not do the pronoun Olympics in Florida.”
At trial, Florida lawyers conceded that the state cannot prevent someone from seeking a transgender identity, but said it can regulate medical care.
For minors, the only treatments in question are puberty-blocking treatments and cross-sex hormones – giving testosterone to someone assigned female at birth, for example. Those who were undergoing treatment when the law was passed in May 2023 were allowed to continue. The surgery, which is rare for minors, was still blocked.
For adults, treatment was still permitted, but could only be performed by a physician rather than an advanced practice registered nurse or other professional. It required the patient to sign a consent form in person while in the same room as the doctor, meaning treatment could not be done via video call or online – something not typically required for other medical procedures. Violators could be criminally charged and medical providers could lose their licenses.
Hinkle wrote that Florida has long allowed treatment for gender dysphoria, the feeling that a person’s gender identity does not match their sex recorded at birth.
“But then the political winds changed,” Hinkle wrote. He was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1996.
For 99 percent of people, Hinkle wrote, their biological sex and gender identity are the same. But for some, they differ. Hinkle said the state admitted this during the trial, even though some don’t believe it and think trans people are making a choice like “reading Shakespeare or Grisham.”
“Many people with this view tend to disapprove of all things transgender and therefore oppose medical care that supports them,” he said.
He said that while the state admits it cannot constitutionally prevent people from identifying as transgender and presenting as they wish, several lawmakers made clear in their comments that this was their goal.
At least 25 states have adopted laws that restrict or prohibit gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of these states face lawsuits.
The only other that was ruled unconstitutional was the ban in Arkansas, which the state appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Advocates are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Judges’ orders are in effect temporarily blocking enforcement of a ban in Montana and aspects of the ban in Georgia.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
