Federal courts lift bans on gender-affirming treatment for minors in Kentucky, Tennessee

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Transgender minors have continued access to gender-affirming hormonal treatment in Tennessee and Kentucky after federal judges last week lifted the bans imposed by each state on such treatments for youth, UPI reports.

The lawsuits requesting the bans to be lifted were brought by the state’s respective chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that Tennessee’s and Kentucky’s new laws on gender-affirming treatments for minors are unconstitutional.

Kentucky’s ban on gender-affirming treatment for minors was set to go into effect on Thursday last week, but U. S. District Judge David Hale at the eleventh hour issued a preliminary injunction lifting the ban on medical treatments on Wednesday, UPI reports. In his ruling, Hale said: “It is undisputed that puberty-blockers and hormones are not given to prepubertal children with gender dysphoria.” Hale allowed a ban on surgeries to remain as no plaintiff was seeking it.

Meanwhile, Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors was set to come into effect on Sunday, but on Wednesday last week, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson granted a preliminary injunction lifting the ban on hormonal treatments, UPI said. Hale, too, allowed the ban on gender-affirming surgery to stand as no plaintiff was seeking it.

“To the Court’s knowledge, every court to consider preliminarily enjoining a ban on gender-affirming care for minors has found that such a ban is likely unconstitutional. And at least one federal court has found such a ban to be unconstitutional at final judgment,” Richardson said in his ruling.

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