Two days before a law banning certain treatments for transgender minors is set to take effect, several Georgia families filed a federal lawsuit against the state late Thursday asking the courts to stop the measure from taking effect, saying it takes away the rights of parents to make health care decisions for their children.
The law takes effect Saturday. The families asked the judge to immediately block the law from taking effect while the challenge makes its way through the court process. Federal District Judge Sarah E. Geraghty has set a hearing for Wednesday. Geraghty was appointed by President Joe Biden.
Republican lawmakers made it a priority this year to pass a bill to ban health care providers from providing certain hormones or surgical treatment to children to align with their gender identity, as legislators did in several other GOP-led states.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 140 into law two days after it passed the General Assembly on a party-line vote. State law grants the governor 40 days after the end of a legislative session to sign or veto bills. Kemp’s office declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Carr said he “will do his job, which includes defending laws passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor.”
Supporters of SB 140 say it protects children from taking steps toward gender transition that are permanent. Opponents say the law goes against published medical “standards of care” and will end up hurting transgender children, who commit suicide at a higher rate than their nontransgender peers.
“This law is targeting transgender youth, their families, and the providers who are following the standards of care,” said the parent of a transgender daughter, identified as “Emma Koe” in the lawsuit. “It is taking away my right as a parent to decide what medical care is best for my daughter. Having access to gender-affirming care means my daughter can be the girl she has always known she is. She can grow, develop, and live a happy, authentic life just like any other child in Georgia.”
The families accuse the state, identified in the lawsuit as the directors and board members of the Department of Community Health and the Georgia Composite Medical Board, of depriving “parents of the fundamental right to obtain established medical care for their children.”
“The ban violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by singling out transgender minors and prohibiting them from obtaining medically necessary treatment,” attorneys representing the families wrote in the lawsuit. The families are being represented by civil rights organizations including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and the Human Rights Campaign.
SB 140 will ban health care professionals from giving hormones such as estrogen and testosterone to transgender minors. Doctors also will not be allowed to perform surgeries on children seeking to align with their gender identity.
Medical professionals will still be allowed to prescribe a hormone treatment that aims to delay puberty or stop it from progressing under the law. Children who don’t identify with their biological sex at a young age are often prescribed the puberty blockers.
Cynthia Cheng-Wun Weaver, senior director of litigation with the LGBTQ+ rights organization the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, called the law an “unconstitutional attack on transgender youth and their families.”
“SB 140 strips the rights of families to make their own medical decisions by prohibiting safe and effective medical care for treating gender dysphoria,” she said. “In doing so, the state has banned critically important care that is often lifesaving for transgender youth.”
The law includes an exception for the treatment of intersex children — those who are not born with the genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs of only one sex. There are allowances for physicians to treat children for nongender-related reasons, such as a sexual development disorder or an injury or infection.
SB 140 will also allow minors to continue receiving hormone treatments if they begin before Saturday.
Other GOP-controlled states have passed similar laws in recent months, as Republicans turn to transgender issues to drum up support from their base as they head into the 2024 elections. Federal judges have stopped similar laws from taking effect in other states, including Florida and Alabama, while the cases make their way through the court process.
This is the second law in two years that addresses transgender minors in Georgia. Kemp last year made a last-minute push asking lawmakers to pass a law aimed at banning transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports. That law also passed on a party-line vote.
