Federal court rejects challenge to Oklahoma law banning gender transition...

[Jessica_Rose]

Federal court rejects challenge to Oklahoma law banning gender transition treatment for minors

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-court-rejects-challenge-to-oklahoma-law-banning-gender-transition-treatment-for-minors/ar-AA1K8Yi1?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6d62d0a67994456bf396e5d294699e98&ei=27

Story by Landon Mion (8 Aug 2025)

A federal appeals court upheld an Oklahoma law banning gender transition medical treatment for minors.

The law, Senate Bill 613, makes it a felony for health care workers to provide gender transition treatment such as puberty-blocking drugs and hormones to a minor.

The bill was passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2023.

Five families of transgender children and a physician challenged the state's law, arguing it violated their constitutional rights.

The plaintiffs, represented by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Oklahoma, argued that lawmakers approved the law with discriminatory intent, pointing to a 2022 law that froze pandemic relief funding for the hospital system OU Health unless Oklahoma Children's Hospital halted gender transition treatment for minors.

A federal judge declined to block the law from taking effect in 2023, writing that transgender medical care for children is "an area in which medical and policy debate is unfolding" and the state "can rationally take the side of caution before permitting irreversible medical treatments of its children."

The order says Oklahoma's law does not violate the Constitution and was not intended to discriminate against transgender children.