Kentucky AG challenges federal judge’s blocking of state law banning transgender youth treatment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is asking a federal appeals court to lift an injunction that blocks portions of a new state law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Cameron’s emergency motion to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenges last month’s federal court ruling that temporarily blocked parts of the Kentucky law prohibiting the use of puberty blockers and hormones on minors.

Seven transgender children and their parents sued to block the law, arguing it violates their constitutional rights and interferes with parental rights to seek established medical treatment for their children.

U.S. District Judge David Hale, who issued the injunction in Louisville a day before the law was to take effect, said the plaintiffs showed “a strong likelihood of success on the merits” of their constitutional challenges.

Cameron said Friday after filing the motion challenging Hale’s ruling that he would “do everything in my power to protect Kentucky kids from this radical agenda, and my office will continue to defend this law at every turn.”

Cameron argued in his motion that parents have a “fundamental right to make decisions concerning the medical care of their children” but it is only a “general right to make decisions among legally available medical treatments.”

At least 20 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits.