Alabama’s Transgender Youth Can Use Medicine to Transition, Judge Rules
nytimes.comA federal judge late Friday blocked portions of an Alabama law that prevent medical professionals from providing care that helps transgender children and teenagers transition, making it a felony offense that is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The severity of the punishment — which also includes threats of criminal prosecution for parents and educators who support a child in transitioning — has stood out even amid a wave of legislation by conservative lawmakers that has focused on transgender young people, including efforts to thwart access to what doctors call gender-affirming care and barring some transgender students from participating in school sports.
The Alabama law, which was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey and went into effect on May 8, was challenged in federal court by several families with transgender children, physicians who work with transgender patients and the U.S.
Justice Department. In an order issued late Friday night, Judge Liles C. Burke of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama temporarily halted the state from enforcing parts of the law that make it a felony to prescribe hormones or puberty-blocking medication while the court challenge continued.
