Late last week, a federal judge refused to block a Florida law restricting irreversible, experimental transgender care, according to multiple reports.
Click Orlando noted that Federal Judge Robert Hinkle denied transgender advocates’ request to block a law that restricts a type of so-called “gender affirming” care for adults.
Florida’s state legislature passed S.B. 254 last session, which reportedly prohibits nurse practitioners from prescribing hormone therapy for patients who believe they are “transgender.” It bans minors from starting hormone therapy and blocks state funds being used for the treatment.
Opponents of the legislation sued, urging the court to block enforcement of the law. The plaintiffs included four transgender adults who claim that they are unable to receive treatment to transition to the opposite gender.
“SB 254 singles out transgender individuals and creates arbitrary, harmful, and medically unjustified restrictions that deter them from obtaining needed medical care,” the request for the injunction said.
“Two plaintiffs will be unable to obtain hormone treatment from their current providers. But despite the plaintiffs’ contrary assertions, they may be able to obtain the treatment from others,” Hinkle wrote in his decision. “In short, the adult plaintiffs have not shown they will suffer irreparable harm, between now and the date of a final judgment, caused by any part of the statute or rules as to which the plaintiffs’ challenge is likely to succeed on the merits.”
A judge has denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the Florida law that places substantial new burdens on transgender adults seeking prescriptions for cross-sex hormones. Per @AP, the law the plaintiffs are challenging "mandates that adult patients seeking trans… pic.twitter.com/Iyaw3mO3rc
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) September 12, 2023
According to The Hill, two of the plaintiffs are unable to obtain hormone replacement therapy from providers they previously relied on. The other two plaintiffs claimed that their irreversible sex reassignment surgeries were canceled by doctors who gave S.B. 254 as the reason.
“The state’s restrictions on well-established health care in SB 254 serve no purpose other than to intentionally prevent transgender people from receiving the care they need. This case is far from over and we will continue to take every legal step to challenge this law that takes away Floridian’s ability to make important decisions about their own lives and hands it over to the government instead,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in a joint statement after the ruling.
Florida is one of over 20 states to pass laws restricting this kind of irreversible, experimental transgender care. In many states, these laws are meant to protect children from these kinds of treatments.
“There’s a lot of nonsense that gets floated around,” DeSantis said at the time the legislation was signed, according to Politico. “What we’ve said in Florida is we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy. Kids should have an upbringing that reflects that.”