Louisiana families file lawsuit to block state ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth – JURIST

LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal announced a lawsuit Monday seeking to block enforcement of a Louisiana ban on gender-affirming procedures for transgender youth.

The civil rights organization prepared the lawsuit, along with the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation of Harvard Law and a Louisiana law firm, on behalf of five Louisiana minors and their families. The lawsuit targets Act 466, known as the Health Care Ban, which prohibits gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors in Louisiana.

The Health Care Ban took effect on January 1 after Louisiana lawmakers overrode then-governor John Bel Edwards’ veto. The law prohibits hormone treatments, gender reassignment and other gender-affirming healthcare procedures for minors. Lambda Legal claimed in a statement that the ban removes parents’ rights to direct their child’s healthcare, violates the state constitution by unlawfully interfering with minors’ right to obtain or reject medical care, and violates the state constitution’s guarantee to equal protection under the law by discriminating based on sex and transgender status.

Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Counsel and Health Care Strategist for Lambda Legal, claimed the Health Care Ban singles out trans youth by prohibiting the medical care “only for minors who are transgender, despite it being evidence-based, safe, and effective.” He argued that denying medical care to minors just because they are transgender is “unlawful and inhumane,” especially considering the same treatment is still available to all other minors.

The lawsuit, Soe, et al. v. The Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners, et al., was filed in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, and the plaintiffs are five minors aged 9-16 as well as their respective parents and guardians.

Louisiana is not the only state challenging access to gender-affirming care for trans minors. In December, a federal judge declined to pause a challenge to an Alabama law that criminalized such treatment for minors. The same month, the governor of Ohio vetoed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.

Louisiana is one of 21 states to ban best-practice medication and surgical care for transgender youth, and the state has initiated and/or passed several bills that center on LGBTQ+ rights in the past few years. In 2022, Louisiana passed a law banning trans youth from participating in sports corresponding with their gender identity. Last year, the state legislature failed to override two vetoes by then-governor Edwards. One of those bills would have banned the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools, and the other would’ve required school employees to refer to students by the names and pronouns that align with their birth certificates, even if it did not align with their gender identities, until the child’s parent provided permission to do otherwise.

After Jeff Landry, who has supported the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors, won Louisiana’s gubernatorial election in October, trans activists have predicted that the two bills will be reintroduced in 2024 and signed into law by Landry.