Judge halts Florida ban on gender transition procedures for minors
Gabrielle M. Etzel
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A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday against a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) that bans gender-transitioning medicine for minors.
“Gender identity is real,” wrote Judge Robert Hinkle in his ruling. “Those whose gender identity does not match their natal sex often suffer gender dysphoria. … Proper treatment begins with mental-health therapy and is followed in appropriate cases by GnRH agonists and cross-sex hormones.”
The law signed by DeSantis in May stipulates that physicians are not allowed to prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors. It also prevents invasive, irreversible procedures such as double mastectomy, phalloplasty, or vaginoplasty.
The families of the three plaintiffs in the case are seeking gender transition procedures for their children that would violate the statutes enacted last month.
“My husband and I have been heartbroken and worried sick about not being able to care for our daughter in the way we know she needs,” the mother of one of the plaintiffs said on Tuesday in a press release. “Today my 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 plaintiffs are being represented by Southern Legal Counsel and various gay and transgender rights advocacy groups, which called the injunction “a powerful affirmation of the humanity of transgender people, the efficacy of well-established, science-based medical care, and of the rights of parents to make informed healthcare decisions for their children.”
In his injunction, Hinkle wrote that “the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on their claim that the prohibition is unconstitutional” when the case is fully heard not under emergency circumstances.
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Hinkle was appointed to the federal bench in 1996 by President Bill Clinton and has a history of liberal rulings. Most notably, in 2014, one year before Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage on a national level, Hinkle struck down the portion of Florida’s Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited same-sex marriage in the state.
“There is no evidence that [gender-transitioning] care is routinely provided so badly that it should be banned outright,” wrote Hinkle in the emergency injunction. If gender transitioning for minors is as deleterious as the state claims, Hinkle wrote, “the solution would be to appropriately regulate these treatments, not to ban them.”