Judge blocks enforcement of FL’s gender-affirming care ban pending appeal

Courthouse for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Credit: Michael Moline

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A federal trial judge will not allow the state of Florida to enforce its law banning gender-affirming care for minors and restriction on adults pending appeal of his earlier ruling that the ban is unconstitutional, citing bias from legislators during floor and committee debate.

In June, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that the 2023 ban on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors, as well as restrictions for treatments for adults, singled out transgender people for disparate treatment.

The plaintiffs included parents of transgender minors and transgender adults.

The state appealed Hinkle’s June ruling and, while waiting for the appellate hearing, asked the judge to allow it to enforce the law, arguing that without it officials lacked control over gender-affirming care in the state.

“That is simply not true. The state has in place abundant means of ensuring that health care professionals adhere to the prevailing standards of care,” Hinkle wrote in his denial of a stay on Thursday. “The state allowed and even paid for gender-affirming care for many years before enacting the statute and rules at issue in a wave of anti-transgender bias.”

The state had argued that gender affirming care might not meet appropriate medical standards. Hinkle, however, pointed to statements by lawmakers during debate over the measure.

“The concern was that gender-affirming care was being provided at all, not that providers were failing to meet the prevailing standards. The defendants’ new-found concern with the manner in which care is being provided — unsupported by anything in the record — does not call for a stay,” Hinkle wrote.

Lawmakers called transgender people “demons,” “imps,” and “evil,” Hinkle noted.

“The evidence that animus motivated at least some legislators is overwhelming, indeed undisputed,” Hinkle wrote. “With legislators having loudly and proudly proclaimed their bias, the defendants ought not be allowed to hide from it now.”

In his 12-page ruling, Hinkle said that, despite its resources and range of discovery available, the state was unable to present evidence of a “single instance of improper provision of care in Florida,” including any violations of standards set forth by the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

“Perhaps most importantly, the state was unable to present evidence of even a single patient who suffered adverse consequences or came to regret care received in this state,” Hinkle wrote.

He said the clearest factor against a stay is the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide for people seeking gender affirming care.

“The public interest supports keeping this a medical issue, not a political one, until the constitutional issue is finally resolved,” Hinkle wrote.

Praise and disgust

The case was litigated by various human rights organizations, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).

“We are pleased the court will continue to enforce this important decision, which correctly found that Florida’s ban on lifesaving medical care for transgender youth and adults was based on bias, not facts,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR in a prepared statement.

“Like other similar laws around the country, Florida’s ban was passed impulsively, without any attempt to genuinely understand this area of health care or the best interests of transgender youth and their families,” Minter said.

When asked for comment about the denial of the stay, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ staff referred the Phoenix to the comments the governor made after Hinkle’s June decision.

In a news conference at the time, DeSantis justified the state’s use of taxpayer dollars to defend the law. He added that rulings by “liberal judges” against state laws in the past have sometimes been overruled on appeal.

“If you’re not willing to defend Florida’s duly enacted statutes against liberal jurisprudence, then you’re basically saying the people of Florida shouldn’t govern themselves and that we should just turn over our destiny to some trial judge somewhere. That I refuse to do,” DeSantis said.

He referred to a January ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the same court that will hear the Florida appeal, in favor of an Alabama law imposing a ban on genital surgeries on minors, which was already banned in Florida and was not challenged in the case awaiting appeal.

“This will be reversed, there’s no question this will be reversed,” DeSantis said at that time.

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