This article was originally published by Them.
A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down the state’s ban on transition-related care for minors, declaring it unconstitutional. The Tuesday ruling marked the strongest takedown to date of a law prohibiting gender-affirming care.
In addition to banning gender-affirming care for minors, the 2021 law prohibited the use of state funds and insurance coverage for such care, and allowed private insurers to refuse to cover trans-related healthcare for people of any age.
Judge James Moody Jr., who issued the 80-page ruling in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Arkansas Central Division, found that the law violated the rights of patients, their parents, and doctors who provide gender-affirming care. Moody’s ruling cited the law’s violation of the Equal Protection Clause, Due Process Clauses, and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Moody’s decision also underscored the medical efficacy of gender-affirming care for minors, writing that the state of Arkansas “failed to provide sufficient evidence that the banned treatments are ineffective or experimental.”
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the State undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Moody wrote.
”The testimony of well-credentialed experts, doctors who provide gender-affirming medical care in Arkansas, and families that rely on that care directly refutes any claim by the State that the Act advances an interest in protecting children,” the ruling continued.
Arkansas became the first in the nation to propose restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors in 2021, when critics said it would be the worst anti-trans law in the U.S.
The American Civil Liberties Union initially filed suit on behalf of the plaintiffs, a group of four trans youth from Arkansas and their parents, shortly after the law was enacted. The law has technically been blocked from enforcement since July 2021, when Moody granted a preliminary injunction against the law.
Following a trial in the fall, this latest ruling means the law is permanently blocked from enforcement, making it the first anti-trans healthcare law to be fully reversed.
Plaintiff Dylan Brandt, a 17-year-old trans boy, expressed gratitude in a statement released by the ACLU. “I’m so grateful the judge heard my experience of how this health care has changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and that of countless other transgender people,” Brandt said.
“My mom and I wanted to fight this law not just to protect my health care, but also to ensure that transgender people like me can safely and fully live our truths,” he continued. “Transgender kids across the country are having their own futures threatened by laws like this one, and it’s up to all of us to speak out, fight back, and give them hope.”
Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, similarly expressed relief and gratitude to the court. “This decision sends a clear message,” she said. “Fear-mongering and misinformation about this health care do not hold up to scrutiny; it hurts trans youth and must end. Science, medicine, and law are clear: gender-affirming care is necessary to ensure these young Arkansans can thrive and be healthy.”
Chase Strangio, the deputy director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project, said that the victory showed “that these laws, when tested by evidence, are indefensible under any standard of constitutional review.”
“We hope that this sends a message to other states about the vulnerability of these laws and the many harms that come from passing them,” Strangio said. “We’re so thankful for the bravery of our clients and the tireless work of advocates in Arkansas.”
Since Arkansas first passed its law in 2021, eighteen other states have followed suit with similar legislation. However, eleven states have also passed “shield laws” that protect access to gender-affirming care for young people, and which pledge to protect those who move across state lines in pursuit of care.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.
