Federal judge blocks Arkansas trans youth treatment ban

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked Arkansas’ ban on gender confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds.

U.S. District Judge Jay Moody in Little Rock issued the ruling Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in May asking the judge to strike down the law that made Arkansas the first state to forbid doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers, or sex reassignment surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for such treatment.

Arkansas’ GOP-dominated Legislature overrode Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure.

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