(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Georgia will be allowed to resume its ban on transgender hormone treatments for minors after a federal appeals court allowed a similar law in Alabama to remain in effect.
The court battle reflects a larger legal and cultural dispute between conservatives and liberals over the issue of transgenderism, and whether or not people can transition from one gender to the other. Specifically, the issue represented here is one concerning whether or not those under the age of 18 can properly consent to irreversible transgender medical procedures, such as hormone treatment or even surgery.
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals answered that question when it overturned U.S. District Judge Sarah Garaghty’s decision to block Georgia’s ban of hormonal treatments on minors. The original case for overturning the law was that the ban violated a minor’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They argued that a minor’s right to equal protection under the law, as is inscribed via the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, would be violated.
But a day after Geraghty ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the 11th Circuit — all three judges having been appointed by Republican presidents — overturned the decision on August 21 by ruling in favor of a similar law in Alabama. Because the U.S. legal system operates according to precedent, the resumption of Alabama’s ban also nullified Garaghty’s decision halting Georgia’s youth hormone ban.
Geraghty, a judicial appointee of President Joe Biden, was also recently urged to vacate her injunction by Republican Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr after the circuit court had ruled in favor of Alabama.
Republican lawmakers in several states have passed or introduced laws banning transgender hormone treatments and surgeries for minors. However, some of these laws have been challenged, and have as a result been halted by the courts. The law in Georgia, signed by Governor Brian Kemp in March, bans certain medical procedures for minors who experience gender dysphoria.
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