Appeals court allows Florida to proceed with ban on transgender treatments for minors

A federal appeals court cleared the way for Florida to enforce a ban on transgender treatments and surgeries for those under the age of 18, reversing a lower court's ruling.

The law prohibiting minors from getting transgender procedures, such as double mastectomies or the use of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, was passed in May 2023, but a federal district court struck down the law in June, ruling it unconstitutional. On Monday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued a stay of the ruling pending an appeal in a 2-1 decision.

The majority ruling from the appellate court found that "the defendants have made a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits" and said that the "district court likely misapplied intermediate scrutiny to the provisions and rules."

"Florida 'will suffer irreparable harm from its inability to enforce the will of its legislature, to further the public-health considerations undergirding the law, and to avoid irreversible health risks to its children,'" Judges Britt Grant and Robert Luck said in the ruling.

The two judges in the majority, Grant and Luck, were both appointed by former President Donald Trump, while the dissenting judge, Charles Wilson, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.

The stay allows Florida to proceed with enforcing the law, which comes after several other states, including Georgia, Texas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Iowa, have passed laws banning transgender treatments for minors.

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The Florida law does not ban transgender procedures for those 18 years and older, but it does restrict the prescription and administration of cross-sex hormones to physicians after a patient has signed a written consent form while in the same room as the doctor.

Minors who had been receiving treatments before the law was signed last year will be allowed to continue to do so under the law, but surgeries continue to be banned, even for those who had begun treatment prior to the law's enactment.