Idaho: Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Law Banning Transgender Treatments For Children, Says Puberty Blockers Are “Safe and Effective”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Ruling that puberty blockers and hormone treatments for children struggling with gender identity are “safe and effective,” a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked an Idaho state law that would ban such treatments for minors under the age of 18, the Hill reports.

The case arose after the ACLU and two families with transgender children filed suit to stop a law passed by Idaho’s GOP-led Legislature and signed into law by the state’s Republican governor in April from going into effect, the Hill reports.

Set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, the Idaho law makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for physicians to provide treatments to minors “for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.”

Issuing a preliminary injunction to block the law, US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote that the “key point of disagreement in this litigation is whether medical interventions allowed under the [World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)] and Endocrine Society guidelines are safe, effective, and medically necessary for some adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria.”

“After carefully considering the voluminous evidence on this point,” Winmill wrote, “the Court finds that the treatment for gender dysphoria — when provided in accordance with the guidelines published by WPATH and the Endocrine Society, and which may include medical interventions such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries — is safe, effective, and medically necessary for some adolescents.”

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