On Wednesday, just days before it was scheduled to go into effect, a federal judge temporarily halted the implementation of an Idaho law prohibiting transgender health treatment for adolescents.
The legislation, signed by the Republican governor of the state in April, Brad Little, bans gender-affirming hormone treatment and puberty blockers for transgender children. Although there is no proof that gender-affirming therapies are being performed in Idaho, it also forbids them for minors.
According to Judge B. Lynn Winmill, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had “shown a strong likelihood of success” in demonstrating that the state had violated the 14th Amendment’s promise of equal protection under the law. The group was right to request an injunction blocking the legislation until its lawsuit on behalf of two Idaho families affected by the ban is decided.
“These instances repeatedly show how the 14th Amendment’s main function is to protect marginalized individuals and protect our fundamental rights from legislative overreach,” according to Winmill. “That was true for previously freed slaves after the Civil War. For women, people of color, interracial couples, and people seeking access to contraception in the 20th century, it was real. And in the twenty-first century, it holds true for trans children and their parents as well.”
On January 1, 2024, the legislation was scheduled to take effect.
Also in a year when more than 20 Republican-controlled states have passed prohibitions on gender transition treatment for minors, ACLU officials said Winmill’s decision might help transgender people feel positive about their rights.
Leo Morales, the executive director of the ACLU of Idaho, stated in a statement that this court ruling is “a much-needed ray of hope for transgender people amid an assault against their right to access health care and ability to navigate the world around them.” Transgender people should not be denied access to medically sound healthcare because “everyone should be free to live and prosper in their true identity.”
Health professionals claim that Little’s claim to be protecting minors from treatments that “irreversibly damage their healthy bodies” is narrow-minded when he signed the bill.
Although it’s possible for individuals to experience permanent breast development or reduced fertility with long-term use, non-surgical gender-affirming treatments are typically reversible. However, despite this, every major health organization claims that the risk of that possible outcome far outweighs the dangers of the mental health consequences of excluding minors from gender-affirming care.
They point out that one of the highest rates of attempted suicide in the US is among transgender children. A third of Black transgender and nonbinary children attempted suicide last year, according to research from the Trevor Project.
