The Supreme Court in Texas will now allow a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in that state, making it the most populous state in the US to allow such a ban.
Several new bills affecting the LGBTQ+ community are set to take effect on September 1 after being major agenda items for lawmakers in the 88th Texas Legislature. Scripps News Waco reports,
More than 20 states have approved similar legislation that would ban minor gender-affirming care, including “procedures and treatments for gender reassignment, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and to provide those procedures and treatments.” shall involve the use of public money or public assistance.” “As the law in Texas reads.
In some states, the laws have either not yet taken effect or have been stayed by the courts.
The controversial bill SB 14 in Texas aims to ban patients under the age of 18 from receiving hormones, surgery and puberty blockers.
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with other advocates, has called the law cruel, saying, “Transgender youth and their families are forced to start the school year in fear of what awaits them. But, let us be clear: the fight is not over yet.”
States that allow gender-affirming care for minors now face a new challenge in taking on patients from other states that do not. Those “refugee” states include California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Washington and Vermont, plus Washington, DC.