Federal judge blocks Florida ban on medical care for transgender youth

A Florida court halted part of a recently enacted legislation that prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming therapy to transgender youngsters on Tuesday.

Judge Robert Hinkle of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee decided that three transgender adolescents in the southern United States might be prescribed puberty blockers. The verdict came in response to their parents’ lawsuit against state officials.

“Gender identity is real,” Hinkle wrote in his opinion.

He added: “Florida has adopted a statute and rules that prohibit these treatments even when medically appropriate.”

Puberty blockers have been used to prevent the development of unpleasant bodily changes in young teenagers contemplating gender transition.

Advocates claim that these are effective therapies for patients suffering from gender dysphoria, a clinical condition in which a person’s gender identity differs from their biological sex.

Other provisions of the legislation backed by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis last month, such as a restriction on gender reassignment surgery for minors and a ban on public funding for treatment of gender dysphoria, are unaffected by Tuesday’s verdict.

Transgender rights have become a contentious subject in US politics, with a dozen Republican-controlled states enacting similar legislation.

Democrats condemn such actions as infringing on basic rights.

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