A federal judge on Tuesday struck down parts of Florida’s restrictions on transition-related medical care for transgender minors and adults, declaring several statutes prohibiting such care unconstitutional.
The law, championed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, made Florida one of the most restrictive states for transgender care in the country.
“Transgender opponents are, of course, free to maintain their beliefs,” Judge Robert L. Hinkle of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee Division, wrote in his opinion. “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. To paraphrase a civil rights advocate from an earlier era, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Hinkle added: “The State of Florida may regulate as necessary, but may not categorically deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment – medication treatment routinely provided to others with the full approval of the State, as long as the purpose is not to support identity patient’s transgender. ”
Hinkle’s ruling overturns administrative rules from a law enacted in May 2023 that banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors and placed restrictions on how all transgender people, including adults, can receive care. The law required that transgender people seek hormone therapy from a doctor, rather than another licensed health care provider, and that the transgender patient provide written consent in person, making it illegal to receive such care via telehealth.
Hinkle wrote that “it is clear that anti-transgender animus” motivated the bill’s sponsors, pointing to inflammatory public comments made by some of the bill’s supporters, including a member of the Florida House who accused doctors of cutting off body parts from “ small children”. and throwing them in the trash.
“Probably as far from reality as any statement from any lawmaker,” Hinkle wrote. “No one who voted for the bill expressed disagreement with or denounced these speakers.”
Julia Friedland, DeSantis’ deputy press secretary, said in an emailed statement Tuesday that the court “erred in ignoring” the wishes of state representatives elected by Floridians and who acted on their behalf to “ protect children.”
“We disagree with the Court’s flawed rulings on the law, on the facts and on the science,” Friedland said. She added that the governor’s office plans to appeal Hinkle’s decision.
One of the plaintiffs, Jane Doe, mother of Susan Doe, who is a 12-year-old trans girl, said the decision “means I won’t have to watch my daughter suffer needlessly because I can’t care for her. she needs.”
“Seeing Susan’s fear surrounding this ban was one of the most difficult experiences we have faced as parents,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “All we wanted was to take away that fear and help her continue to be the happy, confident child she is now.”
The only part of the law that has not been blocked is the ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors, which none of the plaintiffs challenged and Hinkle noted is “extraordinarily rare.” The opinion also did not address restrictions on surgery for trans adults, since the adult plaintiff in the case was not seeking surgery.
Florida is among the 25 states that restricted access to transitional care for minors, and one of six that made it a crime to provide such care to minors. However, Hinkle previously called unconstitutional the part of Florida law that would allow health care providers to be charged with a crime or subject to disciplinary action by a licensing board.
The plaintiffs in the Florida case were represented by LGBTQ advocacy groups GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Southern Legal Counsel, the Human Rights Campaign and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, a national law firm.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, celebrated the victory on social media, noting that Florida’s law was the first in the country to restrict services to transgender adults as well as minors.
“The state of Florida has demonstrated blatant discriminatory intent toward transgender people, and today’s decision makes clear that this is not allowed,” Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said in a statement. “There is no sound reason to deprive people of the ability to make medically necessary, best-practice health decisions for themselves – especially when the trade-off is heartache and anguish for children and parents.”
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