Idaho AG plans to appeal ruling blocking transgender care ban

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador (R) says he plans to appeal the ruling by a federal judge that temporarily blocked a state law that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill temporarily blocked the law just days before it was meant to take effect on Jan. 1. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed the law in February, and Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little signed it into law in April.

The law would make it a felony for medical professionals to provide certain medications and treatments to minors for the purpose of “attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex” if it is different from the one assigned at birth.

The law specifically prohibits gender transition, puberty blockers and hormone treatment for minors with gender dysphoria.

Labrador said Winmill’s ruling places children at risk of irreversible harm and that “history will not look kindly” at the decision. He likened the ruling to the federal judiciary’s decision to once endorse “the eugenics movement and forced sterilization of intellectually disabled people.”

“We are taking immediate action to appeal this decision and are confident that correction will come,” he said in a statement. “I will never stop fighting for and protecting our most vulnerable children.”

The ACLU and two Idaho families filed the lawsuit, which seeks to stop the ban on behalf of their respective transgender daughters.

The families said their daughters had difficulties with their mental health and are less prone to self-harm after receiving gender-affirming care.

In Winmill’s ruling, she wrote that the medical interventions are “safe, effective, and medically necessary for some adolescents” and noted that gender-affirming care can improve “the wellbeing of some adolescents with gender dysphoria, and delaying or withholding such care can be harmful, potentially increasing depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.”

The ACLU of Idaho celebrated Winmill’s ruling, calling it a significant victory for transgender youth and their parents.

“This judicial decision is a much-needed ray of hope for trans people amid a years-long onslaught against their rights to access health care and ability to navigate the world around them,” ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales said in a statement. “Everyone should be free to live and thrive in their authentic identity, which means transgender people should not be shut out of accessing medically sound health care.”

Winmill’s decision comes as lawsuits around the country attempt to change laws in GOP-held states that ban gender-affirming care for minors.