LGBTQ+ advocates announced a lawsuit on Monday to prevent the enforcement of Louisiana’s new ban on transgender health care procedures for anyone under the age of 18 in New Orleans (AP).
On behalf of five Louisiana adolescents and their parents, who were identified in the files by nicknames, the complaint was prepared by Lambda Legal and people. The petition was being filed in Louisiana district court in New Orleans, according to a news release from Lambda Legal.
State legislators overrode a veto by then-Gov. last year and approved the restrictions. Democrat John Bel Edwards. The law took effect on January 1 and prohibits, among other things, hormone therapies, gender reassignment surgery, and drugs that block puberty for minors. As a result, Louisiana became one of 22 states that outlawed or limited transgender care.
The New Orleans complaint is one of many state and federal prosecutor challenges to those laws. Arkansas’s ban was overturned by a federal judge in June, but other challenges led to decisions allowing enforcement. The Supreme Court has been challenged by the ACLU regarding restrictions in Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Louisiana lawsuit contends that by placing restrictions on parents’ and patients’ ability to make their own medical decisions, the law violates the state constitution in terms of the right to privacy provision. It requests a judge’s order prohibiting the enforcement of the law as well as an affirmative ruling that it is illegal.
According to the lawsuit, the Act’s ban on offering transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria evidence-based and medically necessary treatment is in direct opposition to their right to receive the health care they require, as advised by their medical professionals and with the assistance of their parents.
The term-limited Edwards left his position on Monday. The fresh governor of the Republicans, former state attorney general Jeff Landry, had backed the restrictions. On Monday evening, a request for comment was made, but his communications director did not immediately respond.
