An appeals court ruled that gender dysphoria is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act which could potentially block conservative political attempts to restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Last week, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the first federal appellate court in the United States to find that the 1990 landmark federal law protects transgender people who experience anguish and other symptoms as a result of the disparity between their assigned sex and their gender identity.
Gender Dysphoria
The federal ruling could become a powerful tool to challenge the legislation that aims to restrict access to medical care and other accommodations for transgender people, including employment and government benefits, said advocates.
The executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, said, "It's a very important and positive ruling to increase people's access to gender-affirming care." The ruling is binding in the states covered by the Richmond-based 4th Circuit, which includes Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, as per the Associated Press.
Furthermore, the ruling will inevitably be cited in cases in other states, said Kevin Barry, who is a law professor at Quinnipiac University. The decision came in the case of a transgender woman who sued the Fairfax County sheriff in Virginia for housing her in jail with men.
The decision is not limited to transgender people challenging jail policies but also broadly applies to all areas of society covered by disability rights law, including employment, government benefits, and services and public accommodations.
According to Politico, Arkansas was the first state in the country to enforce a ban that prohibits doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers, or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. There are no doctors who perform gender-affirming surgery on minors in the state.
Gender-Affirming Health Care
The court's ruling on Thursday said, "Because the minor's sex at birth determines whether or not the minor can receive certain types of medical care under the law, Act 626 discriminates on the basis of sex."
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, as well as two doctors who provide gender-confirming treatments. While Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed the ban last year, other GOP lawmakers overrode him to enact the law.
Several medical groups, including the American Medical Association, oppose the ban and have argued that the care is safe if properly administered. The Justice Department has also opposed the ban, arguing that it was unconstitutional.
During oral arguments in June, the deputy director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, Chase Strangio, said that lifting the injunction would create unnecessary anxiety and uncertainty for families with transgender children.
"People are relying on this treatment. Because of the injunction, the plaintiffs have been able to receive the medical care that they need, if the injunction were lifted now, the families would have to leave their homes, their communities, their jobs, and travel to another state, just to potentially return at a point when the final order would be issued," he said at the time, The Hill reported.
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