TALLAHASEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – A U.S. district judge in Florida imposed an injunction against a state law that barred the prescription of puberty blockers and transgender drugs for minors as well as the use of Medicaid to pay for gender “treatments.”
In a 54-page ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, maintained that Florida state regulations and a May law signed by Republican presidential hopeful and Gov. Ron DeSantis violate federal laws regarding Medicaid, equal protection under the U.S. Constitution, and the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) ban on sexual discrimination.
“Gender identity is real,” Hinkle wrote, adding that Florida recognizes “gender identity” despite state lawmakers’ “bigotry directed against transgender people.” He further wrote that Florida statutes regarding gender drugs and “treatments” are “politically motivated,” that the state’s actions against gender “treatments” were “biased … from the outset,” viewing gender identity as a “woke idea” or as “profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry or doctors.”
“There are those who believe that cisgender individuals properly adhere to their natal sex and that transgender individuals have inappropriately chosen a contrary gender identity, male or female, just as one might choose whether to read Shakespeare or Grisham,” Hinkle maintains. “Many people with this view tend to disapprove all things transgender and so oppose medical care that supports a person’s transgender existence.”
Hinkle further maintained that to deny gender-confused people access to such “treatments” would “increase anxiety, depression and the risk of suicide,” a view contradicted by a 2021 Journal of the American Medical Association study that found efforts “to empirically demonstrate mental health benefits from gender-affirming surgery have generated mixed results.” A Swedish cohort study also found that “persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.”
The ruling follows a lawsuit issued against Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) after the agency issued a report last June designating gender “treatments” as “experimental.” The suit was filed on behalf of four gender-confused people, two adults and two minors, both age 13, by LGBT rights organizations, Business Insider reported.
DeSantis signed the May law while litigation over the report was ongoing. The law also gave Florida the ability to take temporary custody of children whose parents sought to obtain such “treatments” for their children and threatened doctors with up to five years in prison for dispensing them.
Also signed were a law that forbid bar venues from hosting an “adult live performance” in the presence of minors, a law forbidding schools from forcing students to share their pronouns and expanded the Parental Rights in Education Law by forbidding teaching gender ideology from pre-K to eighth grade, and a law mandating that people use bathrooms in accord with their biological sex in schools, prisons, and other public buildings.
Writing about the report in his ruling, Hinkle stated that its “conclusion was not supported by the evidence and was contrary to generally accepted medical standards.” However, as LifeSiteNews has extensively reported, transgender surgeries have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, cancer, stroke, infertility, and drastically increased instances of suicidality.
Earlier this month, Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction against the Florida statutes in response to the lawsuit so that those involved could continue to access “treatment.” The move follows Hinkle’s refusal to issue a preliminary injunction against Florida’s ban on the use of Medicaid coverage for gender “treatments” in October.
Under DeSantis’ watch, Florida’s Board of Medicine has consistently voted to ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or mutilating gender “transition” surgeries for minors, and he has fought against LGBT ideology in medicine and schools.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has also consistently decried the effects of transgender “treatments” for minors. In April 2022, for instance, Ladapo issued a guidance that warned of a “lack of conclusive evidence” for such “treatments” and “the potential for long-term, irreversible effects.”
In March, DeSantis released an ad showing the dangers related to gender “treatments” that juxtaposed a clip of President Joe Biden calling Florida’s actions limiting gender interventions for children as “cruel” with images of the butchered forearms and torsos of young people who have had so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries.
Florida is one of 19 states that currently have laws banning or regulating the use of transgender “treatments” since Biden took office. In May, LifeSiteNews launched a map tracking the states that have laws regulating transgender drugs and surgeries.
DeSantis’ office has yet to respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.