Louisiana has been sued by five trans children and their families over a ban on gender-affirming healthcare.
The LGBTQ+ lobbying group Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on Monday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. Act 466, which became operative on January 1, is contested. The act forbids transgender children from receiving gender-affirming health care.
A 9-year-old transgender girl who has socially transitioned but has not yet begun taking puberty blockers is one of the plaintiffs in the case, as is a 16-year-old. The ban will require the girl to cease taking her hormones for many months before she turns 18. One plaintiff is identified as a fixed-income Medicaid recipient.
The Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, its members, and Liz Murrill, the attorney general, are the defendants.
The plaintiffs are not allowed to access essential medical care because of the ban, according to the lawsuit. It states that although each family has thought about seeking care outside of the state, they do not want to leave their Louisiana home.
People who use non-medical interventions, such as names, pronouns, and clothes that more closely reflect their gender identity, are said to be socially transitioning.
Restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare have been passed in more than 20 other states, the majority of which have faced legal challenges. Some restrictions have been put on hold from being enforced until the lawsuits are heard.
According to Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, counsel with Lambda Legal, “denying medical treatment to youth just because they are transgender is both unconstitutional and cruel, particularly when the same treatments remain accessible to all other minors.” The “Health Care Ban” represents wide government overreach into the relationship between kids, their parents, and their health care providers.
The majority of major health institutions support gender-affirming healthcare, and a sizable body of research backs it up.
The term “gender-affirming care” refers to medical procedures provided to patients to help them align their physical bodies with their identified gender. Both transgender people who identify as a gender different from the gender that was assigned to them at birth and those who are cisgender use gender-affirming care.
In a press release, claimant Max Moe stated that “this health care has allowed me to be happy, healthy, and my real true self- the teenager I know I am.” “I worry about how my mental health may deteriorate and am terrified of what the Health Care Ban will do.”
According to research, 40% of transgender youth have reported having attempted suicide, and 80% have considered suicide altogether. Additionally, research shows that gender-affirming health care results in better mental health outcomes.
For protection and privacy reasons, the plaintiffs and their families are identified in the complaint using pseudonyms.
Because trans children are also able to access puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to help them more closely identify with their identified gender, the lawsuit claims that the ban is biased because it only applies to them. According to the plaintiffs, the new state law amounts to unconstitutional sex-based discrimination.
Misinformation served as the impetus for Louisiana’s and other states’ approval of the restrictions.
Proponents of the ban voiced their dubious claims that children are being left sterile and that adolescents are receiving irreversible gender-affirming surgeries during the legislative process.
The person receives individualized treatment plans. Fully reversible puberty blockers may be prescribed to some younger individuals, giving them time to weigh their options.
Afterward, hormone therapy may be administered to a person to aid in their adolescence by enabling their body to change in ways consistent with their gender identity. These treatments are partially reversible.
According to Dr. Kathryn Lowe, a physician who represents the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on LGBT health and wellness, gender-affirming procedures like major surgeries, which add or remove breast tissue, or lower surgery—which constructs the vagina or penis—are typically not advised for minors.
Although there is no proof that such methods are available in Louisiana, an older minor may occasionally receive top surgery after considerable counseling.
Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, who was the transgender care ban’s sponsor, expressed concern about the risks of puberty blockers, but health professionals believe they are safe and have been using them to treat prematurely entering children for years.
In particular, the lawsuit criticizes politicians for ignoring facts, claiming that they disregarded hours of testimony from affected individuals and qualified medical professionals, many of whom expressed concern over the policy’s potential effects on vulnerable youths’ mental health in favor of “misinformation and unfounded prejudices.”
The restriction was approved during the 2022 regular session, but former governor Democrat John Bel Edwards vetoed it. Only three times since 1973, the legislature overturned a governor’s veto, including Edwards’.
Edwards stated at the time that he thought the restriction might be overturned by the courts because it was illegal.
