A Kansas judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its law banning minors from accessing non-surgical transition-related treatments such as hormones or puberty blockers.
On May 15, Judge Carl Folsom III of the State District Court in Douglas County granted a temporary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the law, finding that it likely violated parents’ rights to make decisions about their children’s health and wellbeing.
In his 117-page ruling, Folsom — who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly — wrote that transgender children were likely to suffer “irreparable harm” if the ban on transition-related hormonal treatments remained in effect. He also cited testimony asserting that gender-affirming, non-surgical treatments for minors are safe, effective, and medically credible.
Folsom did not block bans on surgical interventions for minors. Currently, only one state — Arizona — bans surgical treatments while still allowing access to hormones and puberty blockers.
Kansas is one of 26 states that currently ban or severely restrict gender-affirming treatments for minors seeking to transition. Kelly vetoed the law last year, calling it “government interference in Kansans’ private medical decisions,” but Republicans in the state legislature overrode her veto.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, finding that states have the authority to restrict transition-related treatments in the name of protecting children. But because the lawsuit challenging Kansas’ law was filed in state court and centers on questions involving the state constitution, it is not bound by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
In the lawsuit, filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and law firm Ballard Spahr, two transgender teenagers and their parents argue that the state’s ban violates the Kansas Constitution. They say denying gender-affirming treatments would cause their children permanent harm. The case has yet to go to trial on its merits.
Critics of gender-affirming care argue that the off-label use of hormones and other medications is experimental and lacks sufficient scientific evidence. They also contend that some minors who medically transition may later regret it, and that many children experiencing gender dysphoria will eventually identify with their birth sex.
Supporters of the treatments argue that they are the medically recommended standard of care for people seeking to transition, and that most transgender minors continue identifying with their gender identity after transitioning. They also note that the same puberty blockers and hormonal treatments remain legal for other minors, provided they are not being used for gender transition.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach criticized Folsom’s ruling as a “stark example of judicial activism” and vowed to appeal the decision.
“The judge invented a new constitutional right out of whole cloth,” Kobach said in a statement. “Even though the Kansas Constitution says nothing about it, the judge created a new right of parents to obtain otherwise-illegal treatments for their children.”
When the lawsuit was first filed, Kobach accused the ACLU of “twisting the meaning of the Kansas Constitution into something unrecognizable” and defended lawmakers’ authority to ban medications prescribed to assist in gender transition.
Supporters hailed the temporary injunction as a rare but significant victory for their clients.
“This is an enormous relief to our clients and families across the state of Kansas,” Harper Seldin, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Rights Project, said in a statement. “The medical care unjustly banned by this law serves as the foundation of young transgender people’s entire lives and helps give them the future all young people deserve. Any decision about this medical care should be between families and their doctors, and today’s order from the court restores that fundamental principle.”
The U.S. Department of Education has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college that required schools to follow an interpretation embraced by the Biden and Obama administrations extending sex-discrimination protections to transgender students.
The move marks the first known instance of the Trump administration terminating civil rights settlements previously negotiated with schools or school districts.
The five school districts -- Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, which serves Rehoboth Beach; Fife School District in Washington State; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California; and Sacramento City Unified School District -- along with Taft College in California's Central Valley, reached those agreements with past administrations following alleged incidents of discrimination involving transgender or nonbinary students.
The Court of Justice for the European Union, the bloc’s top court, has ruled that Hungary’s 2021 law banning depictions of LGBTQ identity is discriminatory and violates the EU’s core values of equality and respect for minority rights.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz-led government passed the law under the guise of “protecting children” from content that acknowledges LGBTQ identity or portrays homosexuality or gender nonconformity in a positive or neutral light.
Mirroring “LGBT propaganda” laws in Russia and Belarus, the measure bans discussions or depictions of homosexuality or gender transition in schools and the media. Proponents cast LGBTQ people as predators whose influence harms the “physical, mental, and moral development” of youth.
Republican lawmakers in Congress are pushing two bills that would restrict teachers from acknowledging transgender identity or discussing gender identity in schools.
The first measure, House Bill 2616 -- dubbed the Parental Rights Over the Education and Care of Their Kids Act, or PROTECT Kids Act -- is being framed as a "parental rights" bill. It would require federally funded public elementary and middle schools to obtain parental consent before changing a student’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on official records.
The bill would also require schools to notify parents before allowing transgender students to access sex-segregated spaces, such as locker rooms or restrooms, that do not align with their sex assigned at birth.
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