A US federal judge struck down a law yesterday (Tuesday) that prohibits minors from undergoing gender reassignment therapy in Arkansas. This is the first time such a restriction has been overturned, while similar laws are being enacted in Republican-led states.
Judge Jay Moody ruled the law unconstitutional because it violates doctors’ rights to provide medical care and discriminates against transgender people. “The evidence showed that the prohibited medical treatment improves the mental health and well-being of the patients and that by prohibiting it the state undermined the interests it claims to promote,” said the judge.
Arkansas, a conservative-leaning southern US state, in 2021 became the first state to ban minors from undergoing gender reassignment treatments, including hormonal or surgical treatments. Since then, about 20 other US states have followed suit, including Florida and Texas. Laws banning sex-reassignment treatments on minors have already been temporarily suspended in several states while legal proceedings continue, but Tuesday’s decision was the first by a federal judge to rule on the merits.
Arkansas District Attorney Tim Griffin said the state will appeal the invalidation of the law banning gender reassignment treatments in minors. “There is no scientific evidence that any child will benefit from these treatments, while the consequences are harmful and often irreversible,” he said in a statement.
The prosecutor who struck down the law, Dylan Brandt, a 17-year-old transgender boy, said he was “grateful” to the judge, who understood how this treatment “changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and countless other transgender people.”
The decision only affects Arkansas, but transgender rights activists hoped it would have symbolic significance beyond the state’s borders. “This decision sends a clear message,” said Holly Dixon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas. “Spreading fear and misinformation about these treatments doesn’t stand up to reality: it’s hurting trans youth and it has to stop,” she said.
The post “Improves their mental health”: an American judge approved gender reassignment surgeries in minors appeared first on Mekur Rishon.
