Judge Won't Block Florida's Restrictions on Care for Trans Adults
The same judge has blocked restrictions affecting trans youth.
September 13, 2023
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
The same judge has blocked restrictions affecting trans youth.
"Gender identity is real," Judge Robert Hinkle wrote in finding the ban violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
The families are plantiffs in one of the two lawsuits that have been brought against the Florida law.
Lambda Legal, Southern Poverty Law Center, and others filed a suit against what they say is Florida's harmful anti-LGBTQ+ law.
Trump-appointed Judge Wendy Berger, in dismissing the suit brought by several Florida families, says bullying "is simply a fact of life."
Meanwhile, Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would create a ban even stricter than the one adopted by medical boards.
Some families had already sued over medical boards' rules against the care, and now those rules have been written into state law.
“As a parent, it is heartbreaking to see my right to make healthcare decisions for my child taken away by political bullies, and the hurt and harm that has caused my child,” one parent of a trans youth said in a new legal brief.
The judge partially stopped the law from being enforced.
A lower court had ruled that the law should be permanently blocked, but this decision reverses that.
A judge has already temporarily blocked the ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and now trans adults are seeking to block restrictions affecting them.
Failure to cover such care is unconstitutional, says a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
In recent years, Florida has stepped up efforts to limit access to transgender health care for adults and children, but frequently run into skepticism in the courts.
The state had asked Judge Robert Hinkle to put his June ruling against the restrictions on hold, but he said no.
The state had banned the care for minors and restricted it for adults.
The new rules go into effect later this month.
This is at odds with how the agency has handled this approval process for years.
Most of the extreme bills have failed to pass, but trans adults are watching statehouses with heightened anxiety.
The attorneys who are defending the embattled antigay clerk are shaking in their boots over an accurate report by the largest and oldest newsgathering agency in the U.S.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is standing by its designation of the Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel as "hate groups."