A federal appeals court has upheld an Oklahoma law banning body-disfiguring sex-change surgeries for minors in what supporters are hailing as a victory for “common sense” and critics are calling a “devastating outcome.”
In a 3-0 opinion published last week, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from trans-identified youth and a doctor to issue a preliminary injunction striking down Oklahoma’s 2023 law banning minors with gender dysphoria from obtaining the life-altering procedures and puberty-blocking drugs.
Plaintiffs complained that the law violated the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The circuit’s unanimous opinion comes seven weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee in its United States v. Skrmettidecision, which Circuit Judge Joel Carson cited in the majority opinion.
“The Supreme Court subjected Tennessee’s SB1 to rational basis review after holding the law denied these gender transition procedures on the basis of age and medical use,” Carson, a Trump appointee, wrote.
“It ‘reject[ed] the argument that the application of SB1 turns on sex,’ because SB1′ prohibits healthcare providers from administering puberty blockers or hormones to minors for certain medical uses, regardless of a minor’s sex.'”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma and Lambda Legal, who represented plaintiffs challenging the Oklahoma law, condemned the 10th Circuit’s ruling in a joint statement.
“[The court’s] ruling is a devastating outcome for transgender youth and their families across Oklahoma and another tragic result of the Supreme Court’s errant and harmful ruling in Skrmetti,” the statement reads.
“Oklahoma’s ban is openly discriminatory and probably harmful to the transgender youth of this state, putting political dogma above parents, their children, and their family doctors. While we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all transgender people and their families across Oklahoma to know we will never stop fighting for the future they deserve and their freedom to be themselves.”
Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, praised the ruling.
“For years, radical left activists pushed the lie of ‘gender transition’ procedures for minors. The truth is much simpler: there is no such thing,” he said in a statement.
“Today, here in Oklahoma, we celebrate a new decision from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that recognizes this truth and protects our children,” Drummond added. “I am proud to have fought this battle and won. This is a victory for our children, for our Constitution, and for common sense.”
Oklahoma is one of 27 U.S. states that have banned some or all types of so-called gender transition for minors.
Efforts to ban minors from obtaining the life-altering procedures, which include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and body-mutilating sex-change surgeries, stem from concerns about their long-term impacts.
The American College of Pediatricians has warned that puberty blockers can have side effects, including “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment, and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.” Meanwhile, the organization has warned that cross-sex hormones put youth at “an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancer an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”
In its 6-3 ruling in June, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Tennessee has a “compelling interest in protecting minors from physical and emotional harm.”
“Under SB1, no minor may be administered puberty blockers or hormones to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, or gender incongruence; minors of any sex may be administered puberty blockers or hormones for other purposes,” he wrote.
“And [the plaintiffs] similarly fail to acknowledge that Tennessee found that the prohibited medical treatments are experimental, can lead to later regret, and are associated with harmful — and sometimes irreversible — risks.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
