A three-judge panel sided with Alabama lawmakers, reversing a lower court’s injunction, and allowing them to enforce a ban on gender-mutilation surgeries for minors.
A group of transgender minors and their parents had argued that rights were being violated.
While the gender discussion rages in some states in others, California for one, viewpoints that oppose the LGBTQ movement are silenced.
Missouri AG defending new law in courtChris Woodward, AFN.net A lawsuit in Missouri by left-wing legal groups aims to block the state's ban on gender manipulation for minors but the state’s attorney general says science is not on their side. "The ACLU and Lambda Legal have challenged us here in Missouri," Attorney General Andrew Bailey, referring to the lawsuit, told the "Washington Watch" program. "Our General Assembly enacted a provision that would protect children from this sterilization machine that has created so many victims in so many other places." Lambda Legal attorneys and ACLU attorneys are raising an equal protection clause challenge, Bailey explained, and have asked the court for a preliminary injunction to stop the state law that is set to go into effect August 28. 
"We raced into court and put together an excellent trial strategy, based on lessons learned from other states,” he said, “and have been putting on evidence to justify a compelling interest in the state of Missouri to protect children from this form of sterilization." Bailey pointed out European nations, which are far to the left of America culturally, are now questioning so-called “gender-affirming care” because their researchers and physicians are concerned about the long-term consequences of hormone therapy and body-altering surgery. Medical boards in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, and France are pumping the brakes on under-18 “gender-affirming care” based on scientific research, AFN reported in a recent story. |
The 11th Circuit reflected last summer’s Supreme Court decision to make abortion decisions a matter for the states in disagreeing with the minors and their parents. The ruling is expected to strengthen the cases for other states who have passed similar laws being challenged in court.
In a radio interview, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said on Washington Watch Tuesday the 11th Circuit’s ruling was an extension of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs abortion case. He said the judges found there was no “substantive right” for parents to choose treatment for their children that many consider still experimental in nature.
A real surgeon’s real passion
Portland surgeon Dr. Blair Peters, who describes himself as having a “passion” for body-altering genital surgeries, said in an interview that minor patients face the possibility of fertility, sexual pleasure and other lifelong complications after the procedure.
He went on to say he’s still “figuring out what works” and expects to know more in “five to 10 years.”
“When we saw the Alabama legislature," Marshall observed, "along with now significant other states around our country doing the same thing, weighing in to say ‘We’re not going to allow a failed European experiment to be used against our kids in our respective states, we think this is not only a tremendous victory for the rule of law, but most importantly, in being able to protect children who can receive critical care absent these experimental treatments."
Similar laws are being challenged in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana, Marshall said.
At the same time liberal states charge ahead with so-called "gender-affirming care," numerous European countries are backpedaling and are rethinking their positions on gender surgeries for minors.
“What it means is that we're going to ensure that they're not receiving medications the FDA has not approved for the purpose in which they’re being offered. It’s going to allow for there to be viable and alternative means to be able to treat gender dysphoria that doesn't create the same risk that they would have currently with the experimental treatment,” Marshall said.
With states passing laws and circuit courts not united on the matter, the issue of gender-mutilation surgeries for minors could very well make its way to the Supreme Court.
“We look forward to continuing the work we’re doing in our litigation. We have the opportunity to make people swear under oath and to expose what Europe already knows, to reveal in our country that this is not the direction we need to be going with healthcare. It’s irreversible to these children. It’s stunning that we find ourselves in the middle of this debate,” Marshall said.
'Misgendering' speaker forced to leave public library
Meanwhile, in the court of public opinion, debate was not allowed in California this week when leadership at a public library asked an invited speaker to leave because the speaker was not a "respecter" of pronouns.
Sophia Lorey, the outreach coordinator for California Family Council and a former soccer player, was asked to speak at a forum on fair and safe sports for girls. The event, which booked a library room, was sponsored by Mom’s For Liberty of Yolo County in northern California.
Lorey was the first speaker of the event which lasted only minutes, long enough for a library official - wearing a "he/him" button - to accuse her of breaking a state law by "misgendering" biological males who say they are females. Yet she did not name any particular person in attendance and pointe out that fact.
“They claimed I was misgendering someone by stating men should not be in girls sports, yet no one should be punished for stating a biological fact,” Lorey said.
The library’s decision could be a costly one. California law prohibits intentional “misgendering” in the workplace but the state law would be overruled by Lorey’s free speech rights, which are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Michelle Deutchman, executive director for the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, told The Sacramento Bee newspaper a public library is considered differently than a public sidewalk.
The library is a “designated public forum” where events can be held regardless of views.
Deutchman said there were other options the library could have taken such as putting out an advance statement show its support for the trans community, scheduled a pro-trans event, or entirely ban all political events.
Lorey said the California Family Council is “looking into our best option” as far as its next move.
“I was simply just there to share my own story. I wasn't talking about other people. I wasn't giving anything in regard to the law," she said. "I was simply there to state that when I was 10 years old all I wanted to be was a college soccer player, and I achieved that goal at 18. I was able to play college soccer all four years. My heart is broken that current girls today can't achieve this same goal because men are taking their spots on the teams."
