Arkansas appeals federal judge’s ruling striking down ban on gender-affirming treatment for trans youth

By Devan Cole, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Arkansas is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last month striking down the state’s ban on gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, one of the defendants in the case, on Thursday notified a federal district court in the state that he and his co-defendants are appealing the ruling to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is largely stacked with judges appointed by Republican presidents.

The June 20 ruling from US District Judge James M. Moody Jr. said that the state’s “Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act” violated the US Constitution and that the 2021 law cannot be enforced by state officials.

“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the State undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Moody wrote in his ruling.

Though the ruling only applies to Arkansas’ ban, it represented a significant victory for LGBTQ advocates, who have been bringing legal challenges over the last few years to similar laws that have been enacted in GOP-led states.

Under the now-blocked law, young people would have not been able to access puberty-blockers, a treatment option for transgender youth that is used to prevent the onset of puberty. The measure also banned ​so-called cross-hormone therapy,​ a gender-affirming treatment that allows for trans people to ​change their physical appearances to be more consistent with their gender identities. The legislation made what it calls an “exception” for some intersex people with unspecified chromosomal makeup and hormone production, and those with difficulties resulting from previous gender-affirming treatments.

Gender-affirming care spans a range of evidence-based treatments and approaches that benefit transgender and nonbinary people. The types of care vary by the age and goals of the recipient, and are considered the standard of care by many mainstream medical associations.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent the plaintiffs in the case, argued in a statement Thursday that the district court’s ruling was “consistent with the decisions of numerous other courts” and based on a “thorough review of the scientific evidence.”

“The court found that rather than protect minors, the law harms them by denying them medical care they need,” said Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “We’re confident in our ability to defend this ruling and the rights of transgender youth and their families.”

The lawsuit had been brought two years ago by four transgender adolescents in Arkansas and their families, as well as two doctors who provide gender-affirming care to trans youth in the state.

Last August, a three-judge panel on the appeals court allowed Moody’s preliminary injunction against the law to stand while the legal challenge to it played out.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.