by Reagan Reese
A federal judge ruled Friday that Kentucky can enforce its state law which prohibits sex change treatments for minors, according to Reuters.
U.S. District Judge David Hale, an Obama appointee, decided that Kentucky can prohibit the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors after ruling in June that the state law likely violated the U.S. Constitution, according to Reuters. The decision was made because a federal appeals court reinstated a similar ban in Tennessee ahead of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing both state’s cases together.
“Today’s ruling is a win for parents and children,” Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a press release. “I’m grateful to the district court for doing what the law requires, which is protecting Kentucky kids from the irreversible harms that these experimental drug treatments would cause.”
Families of transgender children sued over both Kentucky and Tennessee’s state laws prohibiting sex change procedures for minors and argued that the legislation takes parental rights away, Reuters reported. Federal judges blocked both laws on June 28 in response to the lawsuits.
“While we strongly disagree with this opinion, it is only in effect while our appeal is pending in front of the Sixth Circuit,” Corey Shapiro, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said in a press release. “It is not the final word, and we remain optimistic that with a full briefing we will achieve a positive result.”
Similar laws are being challenged in courts across the country; in Arkansas, an Obama-appointed judge blocked a state law that banned sex change procedures for children including surgeries, puberty blockers and hormones. On Thursday, five families, three doctors and two LGBT activist organizations filed a lawsuit against a Texas law which prohibits similar procedures for children.
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Reagan Reese is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
