“Socially, she was a lot more comfortable playing with and associating with the girls. “Growing up, Jane always felt more like a girl than a boy,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit describes both transgender teens as Idahoans who began a gradual, multi-step gender-affirming process in their teens. Transgender Idahoans filing suit began gender-affirming care while teens “The Legislature’s decision to supplant the medical judgment of Idaho physicians (and every major medical association in the nation) with its own, to subject Idaho physicians to draconian penalties for providing patients with well-accepted medical care, and to intrude on family medical decisions, is extraordinary,” it says. That testimony included statements about “the unavoidable, grave harm to the health and wellbeing of transgender youth (who are deprived of care) including debilitating anxiety, severe depression, self-harm and suicide,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says that state legislators and the governor ignored testimony from Idaho transgender youth and adults, parents and families of transgender Idahoans, and health care providers whose patients include transgender youth. “This was reflected in statements made by legislators who supported the law, and the fact that the (ban) is just part of a broader campaign by the Idaho Legislature targeting transgender people of all ages.” Instead, the law was motivated by “negative attitudes toward and disapproval of transgender people,” the lawsuit says. Those restrictions don’t serve a greater governmental interest, the lawsuit says. The ban “also infringes on a fundamental right – parents’ right to make decisions about their children’s medical care.” New transgender health care law doesn’t serve governmental interest, lawsuit argues But the law criminalizes the use of that medical care only when it comes to patients who are transgender youth, the lawsuit notes. The medical care it applies to – hormone therapy, for example – can be used to treat a variety of patients and health conditions. The families said the law violates the right to equal protection, or equal treatment under the law. My family, my doctors, and I have worked together to make decisions about my medical care, and it’s shocking to have politicians take those decisions away from us,” Jane Doe, a 16-year-old transgender girl, said in a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union announcing the case. “Being able to live my life as my true self has been a long journey, and my medical care has been an important part of that journey. The families – using surnames Poe and Doe to protect the minor patients’ identities – say the ban is unconstitutional. Bennetts’ and Labrador’s offices responded by email to say they do not comment on pending or ongoing litigation. It does not allege they are enforcing the ban already it seeks to keep them from being able to enforce it.Ī spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The suit names Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts and members of the Idaho Code Commission within the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. If the law takes effect, it will keep the 15- and 16-year-old teen plaintiffs from being able to continue the gender-affirming treatments they currently receive, the lawsuit says. Breaking the law would carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. It also makes it illegal to perform gender-affirming surgeries however, those are not performed in Idaho. The law makes it a felony to give patients under age 18 puberty blockers or hormone treatments for gender dysphoria. Brad Little signed it into law in April, saying he wanted it to protect children but noting that he had reservations about the state interfering with parental rights and medical decisions. The Republican-led Idaho Legislature passed the law, known as House Bill 71, during this year’s legislative session. The families of two transgender teens have sued Idaho officials in federal court to keep them from enforcing the state’s ban on gender care for youth – a law set to take effect in January.
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