On Monday, August 26, a 3-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling that allows the ban on gender-affirming care for youth in Florida to take effect immediately while litigation continues. This means that transgender youth under the age of 18 can no longer access gender-affirming healthcare like puberty-delaying medications, hormone replacement therapy, and surgeries in the state. The decision also allows restrictions for transgender adults in Florida to go into effect immediately, including a regulation that prohibits nurse practitioners from prescribing hormone replacement therapy medications to adults.
This decision to disrupt access to life-saving healthcare leaves the entire Southeast without access to gender-affirming care for minors. Transgender youth in Florida and adjoining states will now have to travel hundreds of miles to access gender-affirming care in the states where it remains legal.
The Campaign for Southern Equality’s Trans Youth Emergency Project (TYEP), led in Florida in partnership with Southern Legal Counsel and Equality Florida, provides 1-on-1 custom patient navigation services and supports families of transgender youth with emergency grants of $500, renewable every six months, to help them travel out of state for care. TYEP has been supporting transgender youth in Florida since the state first banned care in 2023. In July of this year, the program expanded to serve families of transgender youth in every state with a ban on gender-affirming care for youth.
Allison Scott (she/her pronouns), Director of Impact and Innovation for the Campaign for Southern Equality, said today:
“Legal battles like this one in Florida are giving families of transgender youth whiplash. Healthcare that their child desperately needs is legal and accessible one day and illegal the next. We want families of transgender youth in Florida and around the country to know that no matter the laws our states pass or the decisions our courts make, we will do everything we can to make sure transgender youth have access to the lifesaving healthcare they need. Through the Trans Youth Emergency Project, we are helping families connect to care in states where it is legal, and providing emergency funding to assist with travel costs. No one should have to leave their home state for life-saving healthcare, but in this tumultuous period, CSE and our partners will be there to offer support every step of the way – and will keep fighting tooth and nail for full legal equality for transgender youth and the entire LGBTQ+ community.”
Doe v. Ladapo, the legal case against against Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care, is being led byGLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Southern Legal Counsel (SLC), and Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
This summer the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in United States v. Skrmetti, a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care. Arguments will likely be heard in the fall of 2024, with a decision expected by the spring or early summer of 2025. In the meantime, families in many states with bans will be forced to travel two to four times a year in order to access their care.
Since 2021, 26 states across the country have passed legislation restricting or banning access to gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth; prior to 2020, no state had advanced a law like this. Click here for a nationwide map of where bans have passed and where they are in effect or on hold pending litigation. An estimated 38% of transgender youth nationwide – and 93% of transgender youth in the South – live in states with a ban.
Families of transgender youth in any state with a ban on gender-affirming care can contact the Trans Youth Emergency Project at www.transyouthemergencyproject.org. Supporters can make a donation at www.transyouthemergencyproject.org/supporttransyouth.
