Federal Judge Deems Florida’s Trans Healthcare Ban for Minors Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender kids is unconstitutional—and in a Tuesday order noted some state politicians behind the controversial law “plainly acted from old-fashioned discriminatory animus.”

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle, in a 105-page decision, also called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, and other lawmakers for playing politics with people’s medical treatment. He compared the discrimination against transgender people to racism and misogyny, quoting the late civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender,” Hinkle wrote. “In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.