North Dakota
Ruling in North Dakota transgender health care case likely months out as trial wraps
BISMARCK — A seven-day trial over North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors concluded Tuesday, though a final decision on the case is still months away.
The state in 2023 made it a crime for health care professionals to provide the treatments to anyone under 18.
A lawsuit brought by North Dakota pediatric endocrinologist Luis Casas alleges that the ban is an unconstitutional infringement of personal autonomy and equal protection rights.
South Central District Court Judge Jackson Lofgren took the case under advisement Tuesday. He asked the plaintiffs and defense to present their closing arguments in legal briefs to be filed at a later date.
The state of North Dakota wrapped up its side earlier that day with testimony from Stephen Levine, an adult psychiatrist.
Levine has been a psychiatrist since about 1970, and was a committee chair of a group that would later become the World Professional Association for Transgender Health — the leading professional organization for transgender health care. Like the other three expert witnesses called by the state, Levine has spoken in court in defense of several laws similar to North Dakota’s.
Levine said adolescents cannot consent to gender-affirming care, so it should be limited to adults. He also said therapy is the superior course of action for treating gender dysphoria.
Levine said he knows of many adults who have received gender-affirming care but do not appear to have benefited from it.
“I’ve had the occasional adult who I think has prospered from trans-affirmative care,” he said.
Levine also said he believes that most adolescents who believe they have gender dysphoria are really suffering from other psychiatric conditions. He said this explains the sharp increase in young people who are seeking gender-affirming care over the last 15 years.
Jan Conlin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, indicated Tuesday there are fewer than a dozen kids in North Dakota who have sought gender-affirming medical care.
“Would that surprise you?” Conlin asked Levine.
“I guess it would,” Levine replied.
Levine, like the other three witnesses who testified for the state, stressed that the medical research on gender-affirming care is nascent and unsettled.
He said that most children who believe they’re transgender later come to identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. He said he acknowledges that the North Dakota transgender health care ban may be a source of distress for adolescents who depend on the treatment, but that he’s skeptical that it would cause them to suffer significantly.
“Every crisis doesn’t necessarily harm somebody,” he said. “It’s not necessarily the end of the world for that child. It may, in fact, be the beginning of a chance to rethink this whole matter.”
Casas, the pediatric endocrinologist, last week testified that one of his patients attempted suicide after learning of the health care ban.
The plaintiffs on Tuesday brought back Gabriela Balf, a psychiatrist with experience treating adolescents with gender dysphoria, as a rebuttal witness.
Balf acknowledged that there is limited research exploring the use of transgender health care for minors. She said it is very difficult to conduct top-tier studies like randomized control trials on children because it’s unethical.
“We simply cannot do these kinds of trials with kids,” she said. “I would like to put to rest once and forever this idea that we’re not doing this because we’re lazy.”
Still, Balf said the bulk of research suggests that transgender adolescents have benefited from gender-affirming care. She also said that some of the research cited by the defense’s witnesses has been discredited.
Balf questioned why the state thought it necessary to adopt the health care law when it’s never bothered to regulate other areas of medicine.
“I find it so discriminatory to have so much scrutiny of this condition and others, they are just swept under the rug,” she said.
She said a couple years ago, a scientific review noted that more than 600 medications are prescribed off-label to children.
“And yet, they’re given to kids,” Balf said. “And nobody seems to be very bothered about it.”
Mary Steurer / North Dakota Monitor
Over the course of the trial, Casas, Balf and two other doctors with personal experience treating transgender adolescents testified that in some cases, gender-affirming medication is necessary for patients’ health and happiness.
Two teenage patients of Casas testified last week that the treatment turned their lives around. Both said they also receive therapy, but that the therapy would not be enough to effectively treat their gender dysphoria.
There are only two pediatric endocrinologists in North Dakota: Casas and Amanda Dahl, who is Casas’ clinical practice partner. Casas said he and Dahl both follow the same standards for administering gender-affirming treatment care. No adolescent can receive gender-affirming care without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, he said. Patients and their families are also informed of what to expect and the risks of the treatment.
The gender-affirming care ban passed North Dakota’s Republican-dominated Legislature with more than two-thirds approval in each chamber.
The ban contains an exemption for children who were receiving treatment before it went into effect. However, even adolescents who fall under the exemption are no longer receiving the care in North Dakota.
Casas testified he no longer provides gender-affirming care to any minors in North Dakota, including patients he saw before the law was enacted, for fear of prosecution. Those patients must travel to Moorhead, Minnesota, to see him for treatment.
The law makes it a Class A misdemeanor to administer gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapy to a minor. Anyone found guilty of doing so could face up to 360 days in jail, fines of up to $3,000 or both. Medical professionals also fear a violation of the ban could jeopardize their medical licenses, according to records filed in court.
The law also makes it a Class B felony to perform transition-related surgery on a minor. Experts have testified in the case that medical professionals do not perform such surgeries on minors in North Dakota, and did not before the ban.
This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com
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IRVINE, Calif. — Team North Dakota (ND) coach Jared Cowan didn’t have many words to share after he had just witnessed his program’s first title.
“Not many words so far here, it was a great tournament,” Cowan said. “The kids played hard, resilient and they put in the work. They deserve it.”
His kids played nearly perfect in the 1A title game of the 2026 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 16U National Championship at Great Park Ice, taking down Team Wyoming 9-0 on Sunday.
A four-goal second period helped North Dakota take control of a game that featured 36 total penalties.
Asher Straus scored twice for North Dakota, while Nathan Fogarty, Ray Sjule, Tyler Dub, Carson Hogness, Keegan Brenno and Colton Lehn rounded out the team’s goals. There was one goal unaccounted for on the final stat sheet.
Balanced scoring has been a theme for North Dakota in this tournament. Sjule and Lehn became the 13th and 14th players to score a goal for North Dakota at nationals. Lehn led the tournament with eight assists, while Straus and Hogness tied for the team lead with five goals.
Unlike some other teams at nationals, the North Dakota roster came back together following the high school season and made a run to the national championship, just the third in state history.
“You’ve got to relearn how people play,” said Hogness, a co-captain. “People play differently in high schools, different systems, all that. So it’s a different aspect when you come back together and play. But it was fun.”
North Dakota’s 32-9 advantage in shots didn’t leave much work for goaltender Alex Straus, who had a nice kick save during a Wyoming power play midway through the first period that might have been the toughest he had to make Sunday. It was his second shutout of the tournament.
“It means a lot,” Alex Straus said. “Three weeks ago, I was on the other side, losing in the state championship, so this means a lot to me.”
Alex Straus gave a lot of the credit to his defense, which was fantastic throughout nationals. North Dakota allowed four goals in five games.
“I think they’re pretty good,” Alex Straus said. “They block a lot of shots. Get the puck out deep and I think they listen to me pretty well when I give them some communication.”
Cowan said he had to shift two forwards back to defense for this tournament due to injuries and they kept the standard high.
“They put pressure on everything, and they don’t give up too many odd-man rushes and they block shots when they need to,” Cowan said.
It’s just a good system to play in.”
Fogarty got the scoring started when, after the Wyoming goaltender had seemingly stopped the puck following a point-blank shot, he stuffed the puck into the goal 2:18 into the game.
“That’s what we try to do,” Cowan said. “We try to get that first one quick, and then just keep building on that with pressure and playing our position and playing connected in all three zones.”
Wyoming had two shutouts en route to the championship game, the second straight for several members of this roster. Wyoming dropped the Tier II 14U national championship game a year ago.
“I can’t give enough props to two teams from the Northern Plains both being here and that one of us gets to walk away a national champion,” Wyoming coach Kasey Kiel said. “But the fact is, out of everybody across the whole country, we’ve got two Northern Plains representatives. That’s fun.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Today in History revisits the Friday, March 29, 1940, edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story of the organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative.
New N. W. REA Unit Organizes
Organization of the Minn-Kota Electric Power Co-operative, to direct farm electricity units in Minnesota and North Dakota counties along the Red river was completed at a meeting here Thursday night.
P. J. Donelly, Grafton, a director of the Nodak co-operative, was named president. Other officers will be S. E. Hunt of Thief River Falls, a director of the Red Lake Rural Electric association; vice president; Victor Edman of Alvarado, Minn., P K and M co-operative, secretary – treasurer; Einar Johnson of Lakota, attorney and A. L. Freeman of Grand Forks, acting superintendent. Engineers will be Ellerby and Co. of St. Paul.
Power co-operative directors who attended were Hugh M. Trowbridge of Comstock, Minn., Red River Valley Electric association; O. P. Refling, Fertile, Minn., Wild Rice Rural Electric co-op; Harry Branigan, Shelvin, Minn., Itasca-Mantrap REA; M. D. Butler, Grand Forks, F. C. Chandler, Whitman, N. D., L. C. Odegard, Buxton, N. D., and Donelly, Nodak Rural Electric co-operative, Hunt and Edman.
Besides the nine directors, those in attendance included George J. Long of Washington, D. C., assistant engineering head of the rural electrification administration; G. B. Ellerbe & Co., engineer, St. Paul; W. T. DePuy, Nodak attorney, Grafton.
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Quinnipiac and North Dakota are playing in the NCAA regional final in the Denny Sanford Premier Center. The winner advances to the NCAA Frozen Four in Las Vegas.
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.
TV: ESPN2 (GF Ch. 26/621 HD).
Stream:
Watch ESPN.
Radio:
The Fox (96.1 FM).
UND 1, Quinnipiac 0 — Jack Kernan 10 (Will Zellers) 6:03. Quinnipiac defenseman Braden Blace attempts to chip a puck out of the zone, but Zellers holds it in and gets it to Kernan along the halfwall. Kernan curls off the wall and into the left circle and snaps a puck five-hole on Bobcats goalie Dylan Silverstein for his 10th goal of the season.
UND 2, Quinnipiac 0 — Cody Croal 10 (Tyler Young, Abram Wiebe) 8:13. Kernan rims a puck around the wall to Wiebe at the left point. Wiebe fires a shot toward the top of the crease, where Young tries to tip it in. It goes to the top of the crease, where Croal sweeps it between his legs and into the back of the net for his third goal of the regional.
UND 3, Quinnipiac 0 — Jack Kernan 11 (Abram Wiebe) 12:20. Wiebe makes a fantastic play at the blue line to strip the puck from Quinnipiac forward Aaron Schwartz. Kernan picks it up near the left point, circles to the right circle and snaps one past Silverstein. The Bobcats yank Silverstein after the goal and put in Matej Marinov.
Forwards
26 Dylan James—29 Ellis Rickwood—9 Will Zellers
7 Mac Swanson—17 Cole Reschny—21 Ben Strinden
19 Cody Croal—15 Jack Kernan—14 Tyler Young
22 David Klee—20 Cade Littler—24 Josh Zakreski
Defenseman
4 Jake Livanavage—2 Bennett Zmolek
25 Abram Wiebe—6 E.J. Emery
16 Andrew Strathmann—18 Keaton Verhoeff
13 Sam Laurila
Goaltenders
35 Jan Špunar
31 Gibson Homer
1 Zach Sandy
Not in lineup: F Ollie Josephson (inj), F Anthony Menghini, F Dalton Andrew, D Jayden Jubenvill, D Ian Engel
Forwards
27 Andon Cerbone—28 Chris Pelosi—11 Aaron Schwartz
20 Mason Marcellus—12 Markus Vidicek—19 Ethan Wyttenbach
23 Antonin Verreault—14 Victor Czerneckianair—10 Tyler Borgula
18 Anthony Cipollone—26 Matthew Lansing—8 Matthew McGroarty
Defensemen
15 Graham Sward—6 Charlie Leddy
7 Elliott Groenewold—22 Braden Brace
25 Nate Tivey—3 William Gilson
5 Brady Schultz
Goaltenders
29 Dylan Silverstein
33 Matej Marinov
31 Samuel Scopa
Not in lineup: F Jeremy Wilmer (inj), F Alex Power, F Ben Riche, D Logan McCutcheon
Referees — Andrew Bruggeman and Sam Hernandez (Big Ten)
Linesmen — Sam Shikowsky and Tommy George (Big Ten)
Supervisor — Steve Piotrowski (Big Ten)
UND is using the same lines as Thursday’s regional game against Merrimack. . . Quinnipiac is using the same lines as Thursday’s game against Providence. . . The Fighting Hawks are looking to go to their first NCAA Frozen Four since 2016, when the program won its eighth national championship. . . Quinnipiac is looking to return to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2023, when the school won its first national title. . . UND and Quinnipiac have met twice in the NCAA tournament. UND beat the Bobcats in the 2015 NCAA regional in Fargo and in the 2016 NCAA national championship game.
Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the top beat writer for the Herald’s circulation division four times and the North Dakota sportswriter of the year twice. He resides in Grand Forks. Reach him at bschlossman@gfherald.com.
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