LEXINGTON, Ky. — The ACLU of Kentucky has filed a legal challenge against Senate Bill 150, an omnibus bill seen by many opponents as one of the most severe pieces of ‘anti-trans’ legislation in the United States.
The legal advocacy group filed the suit on behalf of seven unnamed Kentucky families, along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Morgan Lewis. It argues that the new law, which is only partially in effect, threatens to violate both plaintiffs’ individual protected rights and their parents’ protected rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Kentucky is one of several states whose General Assembly recently opted to enact a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. In a legislative session marked by a Republican-led effort to combat “woke” ideology they say is infiltrating school classrooms and doctor’s offices, Senate Bill 150, targeting LGBTQ youth, was among the most controversial.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, takes issue with the portion of the Republican-backed Senate Bill 150 that bans gender transition health care services for youth living with gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.
Gender dysphoria refers to the “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity,” according to the American Psychiatric Association. Gender-affirming care to treat this type of dysphoria is any care administered by a provider to reduce an individual’s “clinically significant distress by permitting them to live in alignment with their gender identity,” the lawsuit explains.
The medical prohibitions in the new ban impacting this population do not take effect until June. Currently in Kentucky, this type of health care is provided to minors only with a parent’s or guardian’s permission. Gender-affirming care, even for youth, is considered the standard of care by major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association.
Though the lawsuit challenges the SB 150’s medical prohibitions for trans youth, it notably does not seek to block the part of the law that bans gender transition surgery.
“While S.B. 150 also governs bathroom policies and sexual education in schools, Plaintiffs’ claims here relate solely to Section 4(2)(a) and (b) of S.B. 150, which bans the prescription and/or administration of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender adolescents,” a footnote in the lawsuit reads.
The seven unnamed trans plaintiffs who filed with their families are between the ages of 9 and 16. Three live in Jefferson County, one lives in in the Western District of Kentucky, and three live in the Eastern District.
Each plaintiff is currently receiving or will need gender-affirming medical care that will be illegal and inaccessible in Kentucky once the ban takes effect this summer, care that their parents and doctors agree is “medically necessary,” the lawsuit states.
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