Florida’s restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and adults are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The that the minors would “suffer irreparable harm” if they were not allowed to access treatment. That same month, he also struck down Florida’s prohibition on Medicaid coverage for treatments for gender dysphoria.
Hinkle has generally ruled in favor of LGBTQ+ rights. In 2014, he ruled that Florida’s 2008 amendment barring same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
But in the decade after same-sex marriage became federally protected, the right wing has pivoted to attacking transgender people and particularly the rights of transgender minors.
To date, more than 20 states, all of which have Republican-controlled legislatures, have passed bans and restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, forcing families to make difficult decisions about how to best care for their child. And the courts have thus far issued mixed rulings.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, allowed Alabama’s ban to go into effect, and the 6th Circuit, based in Ohio, ruled that Tennessee and Kentucky could enact their bans as well. But other appeals courts have blocked bans on transgender athletes joining teams that correspond with their gender, and the 11th Circuit sided with a Florida drag brunch spot, Hamburger Mary’s, to stop the state’s drag ban from taking place.
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In November, LGBTQ+ advocates asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care. The Supreme Court intervened in an Idaho ruling in April, focusing on how the state could enforce its ban on gender-affirming care and for whom.
But neither the Supreme Court nor any U.S. Court of Appeals has yet to weigh in specifically on the constitutionality of restrictions for transition care, Hinkle wrote.
Tuesday’s decision in Florida returns decisions about transgender medical care to the patients and their families, Simone Chriss, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case and the director of the transgender rights initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, told The Tampa Bay Times.
The ruling “restores some balance in terms of respect and dignity and decency in a state that has never been more in need of those things right now,” Chriss said.
