Alabama Sued
The state of Alabama is facing a federal lawsuit from two families and two medical professionals challenging the state’s new law that classifies providing gender-affirming treatment to trans minors under 19 as a felony offense. The filing comes just days after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the legislation into law.
The families, identified anonymously in the suit as Roe and Doe, include parents of trans teenagers from multiple Alabama counties that feel like they may be forced to leave the state if state law threatens the ability for their children to access gender-affirming healthcare treatments, including puberty blockers.
Instead of solving actual problems and dedicating taxpayer dollars to improving the lives of the people of their state, our opponents chose to demonize transgender young people and criminalize the doctors, parents, and communities that support them
CARL CHARLES, senior attorney, lambda Legal
“Like all parents we want nothing more than for our child to be healthy and happy. We have seen our daughter change from being reclusive and anxious to being an engaged, happy child once we got her the support and care she needs,” plaintiff and parent Robert Roe said in a statement. “This law threatens all of that and takes away our ability to follow the advice of highly qualified medical professionals.”
The medical professionals among the plaintiffs, Dr. Morissa Ladinsky and Dr. Hussein Abdul-Latif, have extensive experience treating trans youth through their work at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama and the UAB Hospital. Under the new law, both could face up to 10 years in prison for providing the same treatments that are widely accepted in the medical community for trans youth.
“By signing SB 184 Governor Ivey has told kind, loving, and loyal Alabama families that they cannot stay here without denying their children the basic medical care they need,” said Ladinsky in a statement. “She has undermined the health and well-being of Alabama children and put doctors like me in the horrifying position of choosing between ignoring the medical needs of our patients or risking being sent to prison.”
“Fabricated” Controversy
The administration of puberty blockers, the most common form of gender-affirming medical care provided to trans minors, and hormone replacement therapy are targeted by the law. But Ivey and other supporters of the law continually equated reversible treatments like puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries as common treatments made available to trans youth.
“We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life,” Ivey said. “Instead, let us all focus on helping them to properly develop into the adults God intended them to be.”
Ivey’s statements ignore the fact that gender-affirming surgeries are rarely, if ever, performed on trans teens and young adults specifically between the ages of 16 and 18, not children as has been described by Conservatives in Alabama and a number of other states.
“The only controversy in providing lifesaving gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Alabama is the one fabricated by Governor Ivey and the legislators that made this despicable bill into law,” said Lambda Legal senior attorney Carl Charles in a statement. “Instead of solving actual problems and dedicating taxpayer dollars to improving the lives of the people of their state, our opponents chose to demonize transgender young people and criminalize the doctors, parents, and communities that support them. And because of our lawsuit, Governor Ivey will spend taxpayer dollars to defend this foolish and clearly unconstitutional law.”
Pro-Trans Coalition
The plaintiffs will be represented by a coalition of LGBTQ and civil rights organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“Sadly, Governor Ivey has sided with a misguided Alabama legislature, who were determined to rush this legislation forward. SB 184 purposefully disregards the well-being of youth who will be directly – and negatively – impacted,” said Scott McCoy, SPLC Interim Deputy Legal Director LGBTQ Rights & Special Litigation. “Allowing this law to diminish and disregard the existence, dignity, and worth of transgender young people in Alabama is not an option.”
Alabama: Previously on Towleroad
Photo by Aiden Craver on Unsplash
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