Civil rights groups threaten swift legal action if Oklahoma bans gender-affirming care

Three civil rights teams have vowed to take “swift authorized motion” towards a slate of proposed restrictions on gender-affirming well being take care of transgender youths and adults in Oklahoma ought to any of them turn into legislation.

Lawmakers have launched at the least 15 payments threatening to severely restrict entry to therapies together with puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgical procedures for transgender people. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature formally convenes on Feb. 6.

A majority of the proposed measures would bar minors from receiving gender-affirming well being care, mimicking payments that had been efficiently handed in Alabama and Arkansas however later enjoined by federal courtroom orders. One other Oklahoma invoice seeks to forestall transgender adults as previous as 26 from accessing care – a pointy pivot from a well-liked conservative argument that legislative efforts to crack down on transgender well being care are supposed to guard youngsters.

An almost similar invoice — titled the “Millstone Act” in a reference to a Bible passage about punishing sinners — was launched earlier this month in South Carolina.

In a joint information launch issued Thursday, Lambda Authorized, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Oklahoma warned of impending authorized motion towards any restrictions on gender-affirming well being care signed into legislation in Oklahoma.

“Enacting an ideological agenda pushed by ignorance and prejudice, as a substitute of science and compassion, isn’t the best way ahead,” Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, counsel and well being care strategist at Lambda Authorized, stated Thursday in a press release.

Gender-affirming well being take care of youth and adults is taken into account medically vital and infrequently lifesaving by most main medical organizations, together with the American Medical Affiliation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We urge the legislature and the governor to not undertake any measure that endangers the well being, well-being, and really lives of transgender Oklahomans,” Gonzalez-Pagan stated Thursday. “We is not going to hesitate to defend transgender Oklahomans’ rights to equality, liberty, and nondiscriminatory entry to the well being care they want.”

“All Oklahomans deserve the assist and care vital for the chance to thrive, together with our transgender neighborhood,” Megan Lambert, authorized director on the ACLU of Oklahoma, stated Thursday in a press release. “Gender-affirming care is a vital a part of serving to transgender youth and adults achieve life by establishing wholesome relationships with their family and friends and by residing authentically as themselves.”

“Make no mistake,” Lambert stated, “this can be a promise of authorized motion ought to any of those payments be signed into legislation.”

In September, all three organizations filed a lawsuit difficult an Oklahoma legislation handed final 12 months that bars transgender college students from utilizing the restroom or locker room per their gender id.

In October, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a legislation blocking one of many state’s largest hospital techniques from receiving federal funds if it continues to supply gender-affirming well being care to transgender youth.

In a signing assertion, Stitt referred to as on the legislature to ban “all irreversible gender transition surgical procedures and hormone therapies on minors” throughout the 2023 legislative session.