Florida’s Ban on Transgender Care Barred by Federal Court (2)

A federal judge in Florida Tuesday blocked the state from enforcing a law and medical board rules that prohibit transgender minors from receiving—and doctors from providing—puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

“Gender identity is real,” Judge Robert L. Hinkle said. And Florida’s adoption of provisions that prohibit treatments that are necessary to conform a person’s identity to their “deeply felt internal sense of being male or female” likely is unconstitutional, he said.

The decision “is a powerful affirmation of the humanity of transgender people, the efficacy of well-established, science-based medical care, and of the rights of parents to make informed healthcare ...