Federal judge strikes down Florida law blocking gender-affirming care for trans minors

A federal judge struck down on Tuesday a Florida law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors and heavily restricted it for adults.

Concretely, judge Robert Hinkle said the statute is unconstitutional as it went too far when barring transgender minors from being prescribed such a treatment with their parents' permission.

He also took down a ban on online treatment for transgender adults and an order for them to only get treatment from doctors, adding they are entitled to legitimate treatment and criticizing those who oppose it.

"Some transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position, just as some once invoked religion to support their racism or misogyny," Hinkle said. "Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender."

Hinkle went on to say that "in time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished." However, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis heavily criticized the decision and vowed to appeal it.

"As we've seen here in Florida, the United Kingdom, and across Europe, there is no quality evidence to support the chemical and physical mutilation of children. These procedures do permanent, life-altering damage to children, and history will look back on this fad in horror," DeSantis said in a statement.

LGBT issues are at the forefront of Florida politics, as the DeSantis administration has made of culture clashes a large part of its agenda. In late April, the government joined a group of states that filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration seeking to halt Title IX amendments, which extend federal protections against sex discrimination to include LGBT students.

"Florida's response to Joe Biden trying to inject gender ideology into education, undermining opportunities for girls and women, violating parents' rights, and abusing his constitutional authority: We will not comply," said the governor back then.

According to a recent analysis by Axios, "rejecting the guidelines could threaten the millions of dollars Florida's schools receive annually."