Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a temporary order Moody issued earlier against the ban. Arkansas’ attorney general has said he plans to appeal Moody’s decision to the 8th U.S. Proponents of the bans said they’re not worried about the Arkansas decision, saying it’s an early ruling in what’s expected to be a long legal fight over the restrictions. In both rulings, the judge has said that “gender identity is real.” The same federal judge this week also struck down Florida’s rule denying Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care. The judge who blocked Florida from enforcing its ban on three children who sued was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Moody was appointed by President Barack Obama, and bans have been temporarily blocked by federal judges in Alabama and Indiana who were appointed by President Donald Trump. The judge directly addresses many of the arguments Republican lawmakers have used in pushing the bans - namely, that the medical care they’re trying to restrict is experimental.Īdvocates said they’re also encouraged that the rulings so far on the medical bans have come from judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents. But Moody’s decision was the first striking down a ban as unconstitutional.Īlthough the ruling only affects Arkansas, Moody’s order is likely to factor into challenges to other state bans. Judges in Alabama, Indiana and Florida have temporarily blocked similar bans. District Judge Jay Moody’s ruling in Arkansas wasn’t the first against restrictions on gender-affirming medical care. With most legislative sessions over or nearing their end, the focus is now shifting to the legal fights that lay ahead. More than 500 bills restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people were introduced in legislatures this year and at least 75 were signed into law, a number that prompted the Human Rights Campaign to issue its first-ever state of emergency. “This is a really important decision that sets the initial bar for federal courts’ full understanding of what it means to deny transgender youth access to age appropriate, best practice medical care,” said Sarah Warbelow, vice president for legal for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights group. LGBTQ+ advocates call it a sign of what to expect as a growing number of challenges to laws that limit transgender youth access to medical care, sports teams and bathrooms work their way through the courts. The 80-page ruling comes on the heels of other decisions blocking similar bans, which have been enacted by at least 20 states. (AP) - A judge’s ruling that struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for minors is offering hope to transgender people, families and providers after a historic wave of restrictions on trans people’s lives sailed through Republican statehouses this year.
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