Oklahoma families, doctor challenge state ban on gender-affirming care

Five Oklahoma families with transgender children and a doctor who treats transgender youths are challenging the state’s recently enacted ban on gender-affirming health care for minors, arguing the new law discriminates against transgender people and violates the right to parental autonomy guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday in federal court, the families of five transgender minors — each of whom is identified in court filings using pseudonyms to protect their safety and privacy — allege Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 613, signed Monday by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), “violates the constitutional rights of Oklahoma adolescents and their parents and will cause severe and irreparable harm.”

The new law, which took effect upon Stitt’s signature, bars health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to minors. It is the 18th state to enact such a law or policy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, and the 15th to do so this year.

Oklahoma is also the fourth state — joining Alabama, Idaho and North Dakota — to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender children and teens, punishable by up to a decade in prison. A federal judge last year temporarily blocked the Alabama law from taking full effect, pending a legal challenge submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Tuesday’s lawsuit — filed by the ACLU, the LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal and the law firm Jenner & Block LLP — argues the Oklahoma law unfairly discriminates against transgender youths and best-practice gender-affirming care in violation of their constitutional rights.

While the measure bars health care providers from administering “gender transition procedures,” which include prescription medications and surgeries, to minors, it does not stop doctors from providing identical treatment to cisgender youths to manage conditions like precocious puberty.

“The Minor Plaintiffs, along with hundreds of other adolescents in Oklahoma, are now faced with the loss of access to this safe, effective, and medically necessary health care because Oklahoma has singled out transgender adolescents by enacting a discriminatory and categorical prohibition on medical treatments for transgender adolescents that are available to others,” the lawsuit states. “In so doing, Oklahoma has endangered the health and wellbeing of transgender adolescents in Oklahoma.”

The law additionally infringes on the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care of their children, the lawsuit argues.

The state acknowledged the suit on Wednesday.

“We are aware a complaint has been filed. We will review it and will defend the laws of the State of Oklahoma,” said Phil Bacharach of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office.

In a statement on Tuesday, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, said Stitt and the Oklahoma legislature’s actions against gender-affirming health care are “based on nothing but animus towards transgender people and a campaign of misinformation and disinformation.”

“These actions risk the health, well-being, and very lives of trans youth in the Sooner State. We will not stand idly by as discriminatory laws endanger our community,” he said.

Tuesday’s lawsuit also challenges other recent steps taken by Oklahoma officials to restrict access to gender-affirming health care, including passing legislation last year to block University of Oklahoma hospitals from receiving federal COVID relief funding if they continued to offer gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.

A policy the hospital system adopted in response to the measure prevents doctors from administering medications like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to transgender minors, according to court filings, though the same treatments are available to cisgender minor patients.

Members of the hospital system’s board are among 40 defendants named in Tuesday’s lawsuit, in addition to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) and members of the state’s medical boards.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs are asking the court to issue injunctions that block state officials from enforcing Oklahoma’s felony health care ban and prohibit doctors at University of Oklahoma hospitals from denying gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors.

“We all deserve the freedom to control our bodies and seek the healthcare we need, including gender-affirming care,” Megan Lambert, legal director of the ACLU’s Oklahoma affiliate, said Tuesday in a news release.