The Supreme Court allows Idaho to enforce its ban on life-saving gender-affirming care for trans youth
The anti-trans bill is able to be enforced. (Getty)
The US Supreme Court has allowed Idaho to temporarily enforce a ban on life-saving gender-affirming care for trans and non-binary youth.
The 2023 law made it a felony to provide gender-affirming care for minors. However, in June of that year, two trans teenagers and their families sued the state over the law. In December 2023, a US District Court Judge ruled that the state could not enforce the ban during the legal challenge.
Now, the Supreme Court ruling has reversed that decision, only blocking enforcement for the plaintiffs but allowing the ban to go into effect during the case.
NBC News reported that the Court’s three liberal justices would have allowed the injunction to remain, but a conservative majority overruled the decision.
Idaho said in its filing that blocking the law “exposes vulnerable children to risky and dangerous medical procedures and infringes Idaho’s sovereign power to enforce its democratically enacted law,” according to Politico.
Just weeks ago, LGBTQ+ protestors covered the state capitol with tens of thousands of paper hearts in protest of legislators’ anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Videos and pictures shared across social media showed at least 48,000 colourful paper hearts littered across the Idaho Capitol’s rotunda floor on Tuesday (2 April), each representing a person who identifies as LGBTQ+ in the state.
The campaign was started in response after an anti-trans Senate bill was set to be signed into law, with the state seeing even more anti-trans legislation being thrust on the LGBTQ+ community.
The bill, which passed its third and final House vote on 18 March and was signed by Idaho governor Brad Little on 22 March, would allow medical providers to deny healthcare or counselling to LGBTQ+ people on the basis of their “religious, moral, or ethical principles”.
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