Florida seeks to be able to withhold medical treatments from transgender individuals during a legal appeal

By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Florida this week asked a federal appeals court to allow the state to restrict treatments for people with gender dysphoria while a legal battle continues to play out.

Attorneys for the state filed a 36-page motion at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a stay of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle that blocked restrictions Florida imposed last year on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people.

A stay, if granted, would allow the restrictions to be in effect while the Atlanta-based appeals court considers the state’s underlying appeal of Hinkle’s decision — a process that likely will take months.

“Letting the state’s laws stand pending an appeal makes the most sense,” the motion, filed Wednesday, said. “Whether the state chooses to use a hammer or a scalpel to regulate gender-dysphoria treatments is a matter for the state to decide.”

Hinkle last month ruled that a 2023 state law and regulations barring the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat children for gender dysphoria and making it harder for transgender adults to access care were unconstitutionally discriminatory and motivated by “animus” toward trans people. Hinkle prohibited state health officials from enforcing the law.

In the 101-page ruling, Hinkle wrote that “gender identity is real” and likened opposition to transgender people to racism and misogyny.

“The state of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity,” he wrote.

Florida quickly appealed and, in the motion filed Wednesday, disputed Hinkle’s conclusions about issues such as animus toward transgender people. The motion requested a stay “as soon as practicable.”

“The state suffers irreparable harm because its laws have been enjoined,” the motion said. “And the state and its citizens face the prospect of risky, possible ineffective, and certainly life-altering treatments being administered.”

Florida and other Republican-controlled states have approved numerous laws and regulations in recent years focused on transgender people. One of the highest-profile issues has been restricting use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors with gender dysphoria.

The federal government defines gender dysphoria clinically as “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.”

In addition to banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors with gender dysphoria, the 2023 Florida law also affected transgender adults. It allowed only physicians — not nurse practitioners — to approve hormone therapy and barred the use of telehealth for new prescriptions. Opponents argued that the restrictions severely reduced access to hormone therapy for adults.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has long disputed arguments about the effectiveness of gender-dysphoria treatments, particularly for minors.

Wednesday’s motion also cited a ruling by a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected a preliminary injunction issued by a district judge against an Alabama ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors.

“There, this (11th Circuit) court held that an Alabama statute that regulates puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as gender-dysphoria treatments didn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) or Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process,” the motion said.”It explained that the statute didn’t amount to sex-based or transgender-based discrimination, and concluded that access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones treatments isn’t deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition, which allows states more leeway to regulate them. Those are the same constitutional issues that plaintiffs raise in their complaints (in the Florida case).”

Attorneys for parents of trans children and a transgender man filed the class-action lawsuit challenging the Florida restrictions. In his ruling last month, Hinkle repeatedly questioned state policymakers’ decisions.

“The patients’ motivation is the desire to achieve the best possible medical treatment. The parents’ motivation is love for their children and the desire to achieve the best possible medical treatment for them. This was not the motivation of many of those involved in adoption of this statute and these rules,” the judge wrote.