A federal judge in Georgia has blocked part of the state's new law banning transgender drugs and procedures for children.
A temporary block was issued on Sunday by District Court Judge Sarah Geraghty, an appointee of President Joe Biden, stopping the enforcement of a portion of the Peach State law that bans hormone replacement for children who claim transgender identity.
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The court's decision to allow hormone replacement therapy will continue through trial, which will determine the constitutionality of the law. However, the law's ban on genital mutilation surgeries will remain in place.
Geraghty found that Georgia's hormone ban is "substantially likely to violate the equal protection clause," noting that while the bill does not ban the use of puberty blockers, the course of chemical castration given to children includes both the blockers and the hormone replacement.
"So banning hormone replacement therapy effectively forecloses the availability of the course of treatment more generally," the judge wrote. "In short, the law remains a broad ban on hormone therapy for adolescents with gender dysphoria who have not yet begun such treatment."
The lawsuit was filed in July by several parents and advocacy group TransParent, who have retained the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as counsel.
"This law unapologetically targets transgender minors and denies them essential healthcare," the plaintiffs' counsel said in a statement. "The ruling restores parents' rights to make medical decisions that are in their child's best interest, including hormone therapy for their transgender children when needed for them to thrive and be healthy."
The lawyers also argued the interventions blocked by the law are "medically necessary" and "supported by every major medical organization in the country." However, there is a growing body of evidence to the contrary.
"The Court found that the ban would 'be likely to put some individuals at risk of the serious harms associated with gender dysphoria that gender-affirming care seeks to prevent,'" the statement continued.
One primary argument of the plaintiffs is that the law denies the "right" of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children.
The transgender movement, with the help of the ACLU and other organizations, has asserted that parents should be able to make these decisions on behalf of their children and also that children should be able to make these decisions without the knowledge or consent of their parents.
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Many conservatives are against the procedures for children regardless of what parents want to do.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), in calling for a national ban on the "barbaric ... mutilation of children" last month, said, "Even a parent has no right to sexually transition a young child."