Federal judges have temporarily blocked most aspects of the Tennessee and Kentucky bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, according to media reports.
The Tennessee injunction, issued June 28, lets the ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors stand, as those surgeries are not recommended for people under 18 anyway, per The Advocate. The Kentucky suit, issued June 26, dealt only with the parts of the statute banning puberty blockers and hormones, so the surgery ban also was excluded from the injunction.
However, the injunctions mean that trans youth in both states will be able to receive puberty blockers and hormone therapy while lawsuits against them are heard.
"Based on the evidence submitted, the court finds that the treatments barred by SB 150 are medically appropriate and necessary for some transgender children. … These drugs have a long history of safe use in minors for various conditions," US District Judge David J. Hale said in blocking Kentucky Senate Bill 150, according to CNN.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the ban into law in March. Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear had vetoed his state's bill, but the Republican-majority legislature overrode his veto in March, so that ban also became law.
—Andrew Davis
