By Sofia Hosseinzadeh
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals here Tuesday blocked an Idaho state law aimed at impeding transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care.
The court, said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a statement, has refused to stay a lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of an Idaho law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 18.
“This ruling should be celebrated by everyone who decries discrimination,” commented ACLU of Idaho Legal Director, Paul Carlos Southwick.
The “Child Protection Law,” or HB 71, targeting gender-affirming care transgender youth rely on, said the ACLU, would ban puberty-blocking medication, doses of testosterone for females and estrogen for males, and “surgeries that sterilize or mutilate, or artificially construct tissue with the appearance of genitalia that differs from the child’s biological sex.”
In addition to these bans, the ACLU said medical practitioners found guilty of providing gender-affirming care face a felony conviction.
Li Nowlin-Sohl, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTA and HIV Project, said, “HB 71 and every ban like it are a dangerous attempt to discriminate against transgender youth, subvert the rights of their parents, and threaten the freedom and well-being of the very people this law claims to protect.”
The law signed in May 2023 by Gov. Brad Little led to a lawsuit filed in the same year by the ACLU, and numerous other parties including two Idaho families, according to the ACLU.
The ACLU and the involved parties argued HB 71 violated the constitutional rights of transgender youth and their families.
According to the ACLU, in December 2023 a District Court judge blocked the enforcement of HB 71 because of the pending lawsuit. In response, a lower court attempted to file a preliminary injunction to enforce the law, which the Ninth Circuit ultimately denied on Tuesday.
“Once again, the federal courts have upheld the rights of transgender youth and their families to access the medical care they and their doctors know is right for them without political interference… We welcome this ruling from the Ninth Circuit and are grateful for the privilege of defending the Constitutional rights of the families of Idaho,” said Nowlin-Sohl.
