ATLANTA – A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing a portion of a bill limiting medical care for transgender children.
Judge Sarah E. Geraghty ruled late Sunday that four Georgia families and a national organization of parents with transgender children likely would succeed in a permanent challenge to a provision in Senate Bill 140 that bans hormone replacement therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria in adolescents. The legislation also prohibits Georgians under 18 from receiving gender-affirming surgery.
Sunday’s ruling will allow the lawsuit challenging the ban on hormone therapy for minors to move forward.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed SB140 last March, voting along party lines. The law took effect July 1.
Supporters characterized the law as a measure to protect children from irreversible physical changes. Opponents, including parents of transgender youth and major medical societies, argued that delaying hormone replacement therapy or surgery until after age 18 would harm vulnerable transgender youths’ mental health.
“This law unapologetically targets transgender minors and denies them essential health care,” civil rights groups representing the plaintiffs wrote in a statement. “The ruling restores parents’ rights to make medical decisions that are in their child’s best interest, including hormone therapy for their transgender children when needed for them to thrive and be healthy.”
The plaintiffs are represented in the case by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
The state will appeal the ruling, said Kara Richardson, spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
“We are disappointed in the judge’s decision and plan to immediately appeal to protect the health and well-being of Georgia’s children,” Richardson said.
The Georgia ruling was the seventh in federal court blocking a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, joining courts in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas.
ATLANTA – A group of parents has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia legislation limiting medical care for transgender children, two days before the law is due to take effect.
Senate Bill 140, which prevents Georgians under 18 from obtaining gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy or surgery, is scheduled to take effect Saturday. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, is seeking a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to stop that from happening.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU’s Georgia chapter, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign, argue the law is unconstitutional.
“The ban infringes parents’ fundamental right to make medical decisions in the best interests of their children, and it singles out transgender minors for the denial of essential medical care, contrary to the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the plaintiffs wrote in their motion to block the law.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed Senate Bill 140 in March, voting along party lines. Supporters framed the law as a measure to protect children from irreversible physical changes.
“As Georgians, parents, and elected leaders, it is our highest responsibility to safeguard the bright, promising futures of our kids – and SB 140 takes an important step in fulfilling that mission,” GOP Gov. Brian Kemp wrote at the time in a statement on Twitter.
During the debate that led up to passage of the bill, legislative Democrats, parents of transgender youth, and major medical societies argued it would harm vulnerable transgender youths’ mental health. Opponents cited higher-than-average suicide rates among transgender teens.
At least 18 Republican-led states have adopted limits to medical care for transgender minors.
ATLANTA – A new Georgia law limiting medical care for transgender children is likely to face serious legal challenges, experts say.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law Thursday that prevents Georgians under 18 from obtaining gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy or surgery.
The Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has vowed to sue the state over the new law. The challenge is likely to succeed, law professors told Capitol Beat.
Federal courts have blocked, at least preliminarily, similar laws banning gender-affirming care in Arkansas and Alabama, said Katie Eyer, a professor of law at Rutgers University. Neither of those cases has reached a full conclusion yet, but preliminary injunctions indicate the courts are likely to find the laws invalid, Eyer said.
“Federal courts have been pretty protective of transgender rights recently,” added Scott Skinner-Thompson, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School. “[The laws] are targeting trans kids and their parents and therefore discriminating against them on the basis of sex.
“[It] interferes with the parents and children’s right to make medical decisions about their lives, which the courts have also recognized as a fundamental right under the due process clause of the Constitution.”
The Georgia law, which takes effect July 1, is likely to face similar arguments.
“We can and will file a lawsuit before then,” said Cory Isaacson, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia. “[The law] violates fundamental constitutional rights under both the state and federal constitutions, including the right to be protected from discrimination and the right to parental autonomy.”
Georgia joins a growing list of states that have banned such care. Since the start of this year, similar laws have been enacted in South Dakota, Mississippi, Utah and Tennessee.
Florida has taken a slightly different approach. The state’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine adopted a rule banning gender-affirming care that took effect this month.
In the Peach State, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr will be tasked with defending the new Georgia law when it goes to court.
“The Attorney General will do his job, which includes defending laws enacted by the General Assembly and signed by the governor,” Carr spokeswoman Kara Richardson said.
“States … have broad authority to regulate in areas fraught with medical uncertainties,” one such brief argued.
But medical experts disagree. Major medical societies such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) oppose the bans because they conflict with established protocols. The Georgia chapter of the AAP and many other medical professionals called on state legislators not to adopt the law.
In contrast, some supporters of such bans in Georgia wish the law had gone even further.
“We are disappointed that this bill remains one of the weakest in the country, and we are mindful of those who worked to undermine full protections for children,” said Cole Muzio, president of Frontline Policy Action, a Christian advocacy group.
The Alabama and Arkansas laws both banned puberty blockers, while the Georgia law does not.
Puberty blockers are typically used to stop puberty from starting in children with gender dysphoria, a recognized medical condition that results in mental distress because of a mismatch between the sex a person was born with and the person’s own sense of their gender.
Puberty blockers often need to be followed by hormone therapy to help transgender youth go through the puberty process, said Ren Massey, an Atlanta-area psychologist who specializes in treating gender dysphoria.
Massey and others are concerned that the ban on hormone therapy will prevent transgender youth from going through the normal stages of teenage development – psychologically, socially and physically.
“Medical professionals try to approximate a normal pubertal development,” often starting with low doses of hormones, he said.
The gender transition process is a lengthy one that includes numerous psychological and medical assessments, Massey said.
He’s concerned that now doctors and psychologists won’t have all the tools they need to help children and teenagers with gender dysphoria – and that these Georgians will suffer.
Massey expects to see an increase in self-harm, attempted suicides and completed suicides among transgender youths in Georgia.
“I’ve had a couple of families already move out of Georgia because of fear of these kinds of laws,” he said. “I am hopeful that lawsuits will lead to an injunction. … [Transgender youths] are in desperate need of support and help to cope with this additional stress.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a controversial bill Thursday banning most gender-affirming care for transgender Georgians under 18.
Kemp wasted little time in signing the bill, which received final passage from the General Assembly just two days earlier.
Senate Bill 140 will ban Georgia transgender youths from receiving hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery.
Hospitals could lose their permits and doctors their licenses. The legislation also opens up doctors to civil and criminal liability for providing such services.
The new law does allow transgender youths to take puberty blockers. It also provides exceptions for youths with certain medical conditions who need hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgeries.
Kemp and other Republican supporters framed the law as a measure to protect children from irreversible physical changes.
“As Georgians, parents, and elected leaders, it is our highest responsibility to safeguard the bright, promising futures of our kids – and SB 140 takes an important step in fulfilling that mission,” Kemp said Thursday in a statement on Twitter.
“I appreciate the many hours of respectful debate and deliberation by members of the General Assembly that resulted in the final passage of this bill.”
The legislation drew fierce criticism from legislative Democrats, parents of transgender youth, and major medical societies who argued it would harm vulnerable transgender youths’ mental health. They also maintained it violates parents’ rights to make decisions about their children’s care and prevents doctors from following medically accepted standards of care.
“This really is about us bullying children in order to score political points,” said Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, while speaking against the bill on the Senate floor earlier this week. “It does not protect children…”
The law is slated to take effect on July 1, 2023. Advocates for transgender youth have vowed to fight it.
“Courts around the country have already stopped similar laws from going into effect on constitutional grounds, and we expect Georgia courts would do the same,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia said in a statement released this week. The group plans to sue the state.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, speaks against controversial SB 140. (Photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine)
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled state Senate gave final passage Tuesday to a bill that will ban transgender youths in Georgia from receiving hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery.
Senate Bill 140 passed on a party line 31-21 vote and now moves to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The controversial bill drew fierce criticism from legislative Democrats, parents of transgender youth, and major medical societies as it went through the legislative committee process.
Hospitals could lose their permits and doctors their licenses for providing such hormone therapy or gender-affirming care. Last week, a House committee amended the bill to remove immunity from civil and criminal liability for doctors who provide such services.
The bill does allow transgender youths to take puberty blockers. It also provides exceptions for youth with certain specified medical conditions who need hormone replacement therapy and certain surgeries.
“Senate Bill 140 is a very challenging bill. It has been something that has been heavy on the hearts for everyone in this chamber,” said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, a medical doctor who cosponsored the bill. “I think we have struck a good balance here.”
“We’re doing the right thing by … truly protecting the lives of children by not offering the life-altering drugs and, of course, the surgeries that are completely irreversible,” added Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, the bill’s chief sponsor.
Democrats argued the bill will harm transgender youth and interfere with parents’ rights and doctors’ judgement.
“Our children are at risk when they are not given the hormone therapy they need to properly manage their gender dysphoria,” said Sen. Kim Jackson, R-Stone Mountain.
Gender dysphoria is a recognized medical condition that results in mental distress because of a mismatch between the sex a person was born with and their gender identity, the person’s own sense of their gender. The condition is listed in a standard psychiatric reference, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
“When the overwhelming [majority of] medical professionals have come in and said, ‘This does not help children. This harms children, this increases their likelihood of committing suicide,’ and yet you continue to push forward, I’m clear it’s no longer about children anymore. It’s about something different than that,” Jackson added. “This really is about us bullying children in order to score political points.”
Democrats also criticized Republicans for interfering with parents’ rights while strongly supporting parents’ rights on other measures, including the Parents’ of Rights education bill the General Assembly passed last year.
“Today, we are debating the rights of parents to protect their children’s mental health and their physical wellness,” said Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson.
“Our chamber has fought restrictions on freedom of medical choice throughout the pandemic … but we continue to take away the freedom of medical professionals and citizens to make choices about their health. I’m getting whiplash, which one do you want? Parental rights or not?”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
