Tallahassee, FL (WSAU) – A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Florida’s new legislation prohibiting doctors from prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors is partially unconstitutional.
A preliminary injunction was issued by Judge Robert Hinkle against Senate Bill 254, which makes permanent surgical operations illegal and requires that a healthcare professional’s license be revoked if they break the law, according to The Daily Wire.
“The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset,” Hinkle wrote in a 44-page ruling. “Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.”
Judge Hinkle continued by stating that the three children in the lawsuit will “suffer irreparable harm” if they cannot access puberty blockers, according to NBC News.
The Daily Wire noted that Hinkle’s decision centered on three children—two girls, age 11, and a boy, age 8—whose parents sued the state’s surgeon general on the grounds that prescribing GnRH, also known as puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Senate Bill 254 was signed last month by Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis along with four other bills to help safeguard kids from what he described as dangerous practices like mutilating surgeries, gender ideology being taught in classrooms, and sexually explicit drag performances.
The law also mandates that adults receiving these surgeries or hormones be properly informed about the irreversible nature and side effects, and also creates a legal pathway to recover damages for injury or death resulting from “gender-affirming care.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been asking for tougher warnings to be put on GnRH since 2010 and issued a formal warning on GnRH drugs last August, stating that using the substances for minors posed substantial dangers, including brain swelling, eyesight loss, and other adverse effects.
According to research cited by NBC News, transgender kids, and adults are prone to stress, despair, and suicidal thoughts, and the evidence on whether treatment with hormones or surgery improves those difficulties is mixed, to say the least.
The office of Governor Ron DeSantis has not responded to the decision or announced if there will be an appeal.
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