Montana Supreme Court... first in nation to uphold trans access to health care

[Jessica_Rose]

Montana Supreme Court becomes first in nation to uphold trans access to health care

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/montana-supreme-court-becomes-first-in-nation-to-uphold-trans-access-to-health-care/ar-AA1vHbkH?ocid=windirect&cvid=84aceafd60794a1c84201ca8018421e6&ei=45

Story by Alex Bollinger (11 Dec 2024)

The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a temporary injunction against the state's ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, becoming the first state supreme court in the nation to do so.

"I will never understand why my representatives are working to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids," Phoebe Cross, a trans boy and the lead plaintiff, said in a statement. "Just living as a trans teenager is difficult enough, the last thing me and my peers need is to have our rights taken away."

The plaintiffs argued that the law amounts to illegal sex discrimination because it only bans certain treatments based on a patient's sex assigned at birth. For example, a cisgender teen boy, under the law, can get hormone therapy if his body isn't undergoing puberty in a way that conforms to how boys generally develop, while a trans teen boy can be in the same situation but would be denied care. The only difference in their situations is their sex assigned at birth.

The parents of the plaintiffs argued that the law also violates their constitutional right to make medical decisions for their children, a right that conservatives usually support but not for the parents of transgender kids.