Florida law restricting trans healthcare can be enforced, appeals court rules
Florida is permitted to pass a rule discriminating against trans people. (Getty/Canva)
A Florida bill that bans trans healthcare for minors and restricts it for adults has been ruled legal.
A three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals decided by 2-1 that a district court decision to block enforcement of the anti-trans law should be halted, allowing the state to ban trans healthcare.
US district judge Robert Hinkle ruled in June 2023 that Florida legislators’ attempts to block a federal Medicaid statue, as well as the Affordable Care Act, to ban trans healthcare for under-18s and impose restrictions on adults, was unconstitutional. He argued that the rule is “invalid” and that restricting trans rights was not a “legitimate state interest.”
However, the Court of Appeals has now overturned that ruling, decreeing that Hinkle “likely misapplied the presumption that the legislature acted in good faith” when saying that restricting trans rights was based on transphobia.
Judges Britt C Grant and Robert J Luck decided that rather than acting from “animus against transgender people… legislators acted from a belief – whether or not correct – that the treatments at issue are harmful, should be banned for minors, and should be prescribed with greater care for adults”.
Dissenting judge Charles R Wilson argued that the district court had identified enough evidence that the legislation was passed “based on invidious discrimination against transgender adults and minors”.
The news is the another blow for LGBTQ+ people in Florida, where Republican governor Ron DeSantis has signed a strong of bills into law restricting queer freedom, inclufing 2022’s Don’t Say Gay bill, which bans classroom discussions of gender and sexuality topics.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, the Southern Legal Counsel and lawyers from Lowenstein Sandler, condemned the appeal court’s ruling, calling it deeply disappointing, and the judges’ “disregard for the district court’s careful findings”.
Speaking on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs, the groups said they “will take every step possible to protect their right to equal treatment under Florida’s laws.”
They went on to say: “Allowing these discriminatory restrictions to go back into effect will deny transgender adults and adolescents life-saving care, and prevent Florida parents from making medical decisions that are right for their children.
“As the district court found based on voluminous evidence, the record shows that these extraordinary restrictions were based on disapproval of transgender people and serve no purpose other than to harm transgender Floridians.”
“We will continue fighting for transgender Floridians and their families, and for everyone’s right to make healthcare decisions without government interference.”
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