(RightIsRight.co) – Cautioning that history might not look kindly on sterilizing children for gender-related distress, nearly two dozen red states are pushing a federal appeals court to uphold Florida’s ban on child sex-change procedures.
In a brief filed, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and 22 other state attorneys general urged the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s ruling that struck down Florida’s ban on pediatric sex changes.
The amici argued that, until recently, “providing sex-change treatments to minors was practically unthinkable,” noting that several states and European nations have already implemented age-based restrictions on such medical interventions.
“Maybe history is repeating itself in grim fashion, and we’ll one day wonder how this medical scandal spread so far before being reined in,” the brief states. “In any event, because ‘nothing rules out th[e] possibility’ that Florida acted to protect kids from sterilizing treatments, the district court grievously erred.”
Moreover, the brief contended that the court erred by questioning the good faith of Florida’s legislature while assuming the good faith of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH).
WPATH, a key transgender medical organization, advocates for children to receive sex-change interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.
In June, Federal District Court Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled against Florida’s SB 254, which bans minors from receiving irreversible transgender treatments.
The decision is currently under appeal, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a stay on Hinkle’s ruling, allowing Florida’s ban to be enforced during the legal proceedings.
In his ruling, Hinkle argued, “Gender identity is real,” and suggested that Florida legislators who supported the ban were motivated by bigotry.
The term “gender identity” was popularized by controversial sexologist John Money and is used by transgender activists to describe a person’s internal sense of being male or female, distinct from their biological sex.
The brief also challenged Hinkle’s assertion that a Florida state House member’s reference to a biblical passage about God creating people “male and female” was evidence of “animus” behind the state’s ban.
Furthermore, Hinkle’s ruling frequently references WPATH’s Standards of Care, calling them “well-established standards of care” and using them to support his argument against Florida’s ban.
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