Governors from Indiana and Idaho have imposed bans on gender-affirming care

The Indiana ACLU sues the state legislature to bans on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children, including doctors from Indiana and Idaho

The Indiana ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of four transgender youth and an Indiana doctor who provides transgender medical treatment. It argues the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantees as well as federal laws regarding essential medical services.

“Permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor,” Holcomb said in a statement about the Indiana bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit rapidly after Holcomb signed the Indiana legislation — something the group had promised to do after Republican supermajorities advanced the ban this session. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho will be challenging that state’s new law.

Our society plays a role in protecting minor people from surgeries and treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies, according to the bill signed by Little. “However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”

Supporters of the legislation have contended the banned care is irreversible or carries side effects. They argue that the treatments need to be approved by an adult.

But opponents say such care is vital and often life-saving for trans kids, and medical providers say most of the procedures are reversible and safe. For 10 years, major medical associations have endorsed the use of medical treatments for children and teens that are not related to their biological sex.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/06/1168323019/the-governors-from-indiana-and-idaho-sign-bans-on-gender-affirming-care

Gender-affirming health care in the state legislature: A giant message to recruits in medical fields, said Wayner at a New Mexico university

“When I started hormone therapy, it made me feel so much better about myself,” said Jessica Wayner, 16, at an Indiana House public health committee hearing last month.

The Kansas Legislature overrode the veto of the bill to ban female athletes from playing in girls’ sports.

The Arkansas Senate also sent a bill to the governor that would require parental permission for teachers in the state to use name and pronouns for trans students. It would ban schools from having teachers use the names of their students.

In some states where Democrats are in control of the legislature, lawmakers are pushing for access to gender-affirming health care. The bill signed by the governor protects providers from civil and criminal prosecution.

The new legislation will help people explore their identities if they decide to, according to Dr. Molly McClain, who provides gender-affirming healthcare to patients of all ages.

“It says you are seen, you are safe, you are precious, and your access to health care will be protected here,” said McClain, who teaches medicine at the University of New Mexico. “That sends a giant message to the recruits” in the medical field, according to me.

A case of transgender girl suing a state law in West Virginia: The federal district court’s emergency docket-enjoint-judicial-reaction-judgment

A challenge to the West Virginia law that affects her is what Becky’s lawyers brought. So far, she is the only transgender girl identified by either side who has been identified by either side as wanting to play on a girls team. After reviewing the case, the Federal District Court Judge allowed the law to go into effect.

Her lawyers argued that “the state shouldn’t be allowed to use the Supreme Court’s emergency docket to force the court to give apreview of its views when there’s no appeals court yet to address this issue.”

While the court’s conservative supermajority has come under considerable criticism for its aggressive use of the emergency docket to deal with controversial issues without full briefing and oral argument, this time the court stayed its hand.

“Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation,” Justice Alito wrote in his dissent, adding: In “the circumstances present here—where a divided panel of a lower court has enjoined a duly enacted state law on an importantsubject without a word of explanation, notwithstanding that the District Court granted summary judgment to theState based on a fact-intensive record—the State is entitled to relief.”

Some 19 states have enacted laws like West Virginia’s in the last three years, according to the ACLU. But no appeals court has yet ruled on the question.

A girl who has lived as a girl since fourth grade is challenging a law in West Virginia, according to court papers. Her brief says she is receiving puberty-delaying treatment and hormones so she will not experience puberty. She will not experience the symptoms of puberty like those of typical boys and will instead get the same symptoms as typical girls.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/06/1165133771/trans-law-west-virginia-supreme-court

Putting a Girl on a Girls’ Team: The Sexism Law Implies Inhuman Physical Differences between the Sexes

According to her lawyers, she has been on the girls’ track and field teams for the past three, going on four, sports seasons, “harming no one.” Indeed, her lawyers say she was “welcomed by teammates and coaches” and “has not had any problems with children on other schools’ teams.”

“While some females may be able to outperform some males, it is generally accepted that, on average, males outperform females athletically because of inherent physical differences between the sexes,” he wrote. This is not an over broad generalization, but a general principle that accurately reflects the average physical differences between the sexes.

The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and private lawyers representing Becky and her mother, appealed the ruling and won a preliminary order from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that precludes the law being enforced while the appellate court considers her case.

It has been the norm for schools to designate student athletes by sex for as long as they have sports teams. If the sexes are not separated in sports, boys will likely dominate the programs and girls will lose out on opportunities to play in interscholastic events.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools, but it’s unclear to the state if it applies to the programs that receive funding from the federal government.