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FL-Fed Judge overturns law banning trans surgeries and drugs for minors

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Aug 31, 2007
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Florida ban on medical treatments for trans kids struck down by judge

https://www.tampabay.com/news/flori...-children-medical-ban-judge-unconstitutional/

12 June 2024

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s restrictions on medical care for transgender children are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday as he struck down a signature priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s decision invalidates much of a 2023 law and rules approved by state boards prohibiting children from accessing medical treatments for gender dysphoria, such as puberty blockers and hormones.

“Florida has adopted a statute and rules that ban gender-affirming care for minors even when medically appropriate,” Hinkle wrote in his 105-page order. “The ban is unconstitutional.”

Attorneys that represented the transgender plaintiffs argued that the law signed by DeSantis was an act of discrimination and “animus” against transgender people. The state said it was targeting the treatments, not transgender people themselves.

In his ruling, Hinkle, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, said that it was “clear that anti-transgender animus” motivated bill sponsors and some legislators who approved the law.

“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs,” Hinkle wrote. “But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender. In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Hinkle pointed to comments from DeSantis and House representatives about young children being castrated or sterilized because of medical treatments for gender dysphoria. Hinkle said that the state admitted during the trial that there was no factual basis for those remarks, and that the record showed no evidence any Florida child had been “castrated or mutilated.”

“Perhaps all this talk about castration and mutilation is just political hyperbole,” Hinkle wrote. “But it casts at least some doubt on the assertion that these decisionmakers’ motivation was sound regulation of medical care in the best interest of transgender patients rather than outright disapproval of transgender identity.”

Along with striking down the rules banning kids with gender dysphoria from accessing medical treatment, Hinkle also struck down rules that required transgender adults to only get medical treatment from physicians, instead of from other kinds of health providers.

Hinkle last year also struck down Florida’s ban on Medicaid covering treatments for gender dysphoria. The state is appealing that ruling, and opponents have argued that the state has been defying Hinkle’s order and still denying Medicaid coverage.

DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said that the state would appeal Hinkle’s new ruling, as well.

“Through their elected representatives, the people of Florida acted to protect children in this state, and the Court was wrong to override their wishes,” Redfern said in an emailed statement. “We disagree with the Court’s erroneous rulings on the law, on the facts, and on the science. As we’ve seen here in Florida, the United Kingdom, and across Europe, there is no quality evidence to support the chemical and physical mutilation of children. These procedures do permanent, life-altering damage to children, and history will look back on this fad in horror.”
 
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Your link isn't working. But I read that story elsewhere. It's disapointing.
 
https://x.com/NatCon2022/status/1800624808247570698


Your link isn't working. But I read that story elsewhere. It's disapointing.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/11/florida-ban-gender-affirming-care-00162721
Federal judge strikes Florida ban on gender-affirming care for children
The judge also blocked requirements that would make accessing care harder for transgender adults.

A placard supporting transgender rights is shown at the Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival.
A placard supporting transgender rights is shown at the Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival on June 17, 2023, in Wilton Manors, Florida. Tuesday's ruling is a major win for a coalition of human rights groups that filed the federal lawsuit arguing the ban violated equal protection rights. | Lynne Sladky/AP

By AREK SARKISSIAN

06/11/2024 02:52 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge has ruled that Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for children are unconstitutional, and that Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican lawmakers who supported them were not acting in the interest of public health.

By refusing to allow children to access treatments, Tallahassee-based district court Judge Robert L. Hinkle wrote in a ruling handed down Tuesday that DeSantis and Republicans who voted for the measure responded in a way that was similar to racism and misogyny.

“Enforcing this moral view is not, however, a legitimate state interest that can sustain this statute,” Hinkle — an appointee of President Bill Clinton — wrote, partly borrowing from arguments that lawyers for the plaintiffs gave during trial in December.

The ruling is a major win for a coalition of human rights groups that filed the federal lawsuit arguing the ban violated equal protection rights. “Today’s ruling affirms the principle that individuals should be able to make informed decisions about their own personal medical treatments without discrimination by the State,” Thomas Redburn, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

In response to Hinkle’s ruling, Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for DeSantis, said the court was wrong to override the wishes of the people, which were conveyed through their elected representatives, and the state of Florida will appeal.

“We disagree with the Court’s erroneous rulings on the law, on the facts, and on the science,” Redfern wrote in a text. “As we’ve seen here in Florida, the United Kingdom, and across Europe, there is no quality evidence to support the chemical and physical mutilation of children. These procedures do permanent, life-altering damage to children, and history will look back on this fad in horror.”

Hinkle’s ruling also struck down restrictions for adults that were included in FL SB254 (23R), which DeSantis signed into law just over a year ago. They include requiring that only doctors, as opposed to other medical professionals, prescribe medicine for gender-affirming treatment and requiring annual x-rays without regard for circumstance.

The law was the result of a presentation that Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo gave to the state boards of Medicine and Osteopathic medicine in 2022 that compelled the two boards to approve similar restrictions by making new rules. DeSantis then asked the Legislature to codify the board rules, saying that gender-affirming care includes castrating and sterilizing children, and mastectomies for girls. Hinkle noted in the ruling that surgeries on minors are extremely rare.

In the ruling, Hinkle wrote DeSantis’ comments about castration were false, and they proved that the governor’s intent of the measure was not to protect the public.

“Whether based on morals, religion, unmoored hatred, or anything else, prohibiting or impeding a person from conforming to the person’s gender identity rather than to the person’s natal sex is not a legitimate state interest,” Hinkle wrote.

The plaintiffs in the case were four transgender adults and seven parents who appeared on behalf of transgender children, and it was the second major lawsuit filed against efforts by Florida to block transgender care. Hinkle in June of last year issued a separate ruling striking down rules made by the state Agency for Health Care Administration that banned Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care.

Hinkle in June 2023 had also issued a preliminary injunction in the case he decided Tuesday that blocked part of the ban on transgender treatments for children for the plaintiffs. The state appealed that ruling and that decision is pending, although Hinkle’s more expansive ruling could make that appeal moot.​

I find this part infuriating:

In the ruling, Hinkle wrote DeSantis’ comments about castration were false, and they proved that the governor’s intent of the measure was not to protect the public.​

Here's the truth. Children are being castrated.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-drawbacks-genital-ops-trans-adolescents.html

Pink-haired Portland surgeon who performs sex-change surgery on trans CHILDREN admits they face lifetime of infertility, incontinence and sexual dissatisfaction, in now-deleted video

Horrified viewers likened the 'evil' procedures to Nazi-era experiments
Advocates say they're rare but vital for those with serious body dysphoria
Read about OHSU's 'Dr Death' helping out-of-staters end their lives in Oregon

I've argued with the supporters of this online ad nauseam. Their argument vacillates between "that doesn't really happen" to "it's rare" and "the government just shouldn't be involved." (These people are almost never libertarian in general and support government involvement in all sorts of things.)

Eventually SCOTUS will have to rule on this. And frankly I'm not sure how this will go. The same conservative majority that overturned Roe v Wade also reinterpreted the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation.
 
“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs,” Hinkle wrote. “But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender. [...]"

In that case, they are not free at all - and they are slaves to those against whom they are not free to discriminate.

(And what is the point of telling people they are "free to hold their beliefs", but not free to exercise those beliefs?)
 
In that case, they are not free at all - and they are slaves to those against whom they are not free to discriminate.

(And what is the point of telling people they are "free to hold their beliefs", but not free to exercise those beliefs?)

All talk in a bag any more.

People are going to prison for defacing fagg flags.
 
DeSantis doesn't like to lose. Expect him to come at this from a different angle somehow.
 
Attorneys that represented the transgender plaintiffs argued that the law signed by DeSantis was an act of discrimination and “animus” against transgender people. The state said it was targeting the treatments, not transgender people themselves.

Treatments? like forcing chemical castration on children? how is that ok?

Hinkle, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton
A Judge appointed by Clinton not surprising..
 
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