Montana’s ban on medical treatments for transgender minors has first day in court
In a full Missoula courtroom on Monday, attorneys for plaintiffs and the state of Montana traded arguments about whether a ban on certain medical treatments for transgender minors should be allowed to take effect Oct. 1 while a challenge to the law’s constitutionality proceeds.
Senate Bill 99, passed this year by Montana’s Republican-majority Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, prohibits Montana medical professionals from prescribing treatments and providing surgeries to youth for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria, a condition of distress that some transgender people experience arising from an incongruence between a person’s gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth.
Unlike some lawsuits over bans on medical care for transgender minors in other parts of the country, the Montana case is proceeding in state court rather than the federal system, prompting evaluation under the Montana Constitution.
The plaintiffs challenging Montana’s law include two transgender minors, Scarlet Van Garderen and Phoebe Cross, their parents, medical providers and two additional anonymous parents on behalf of their 15-year-old transgender daughter. Defendants are the state of Montana, Gov. Gianforte, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, head of the state health department Charlie Brereton, Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the Board of Medical Examiners and the Board of Nursing.
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Attorneys for the plaintiffs have argued that SB 99 bans “a wide range of medical treatments and procedures when, and only when, they are provided to transgender youth for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria.” In doing so, attorneys say, the law violates myriad constitutional rights, including equal protection under the law, privacy, dignity, parental autonomy and the right to seek health.
In the court hearing, the plaintiff’s attorneys also sought to impress on the judge the real-life impacts the law would have on minors, including 16-year-old Cross, who has been taking testosterone after experiencing anxiety, depression and suicide attempts related to his gender dysphoria even prior to puberty, according to court filings. Cross was seated directly behind attorneys in the courtroom on Monday with his father.
“Gender-affirming care has been his lifeline and has allowed him to see a future for himself. It quite literally saved his life,” Malita Picasso, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a reference to Cross Monday. “These are the people whose pain the defendants cruelly referred to as the ‘unhappiness of adolescence.’ We’re talking about people who are sitting in this room today desperate to know whether their lives are going to be upended and whether they’re going to be able to continue to receive this care that has changed their lives.”
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Both sides rested after an hour and a half of arguments. Marks told the courtroom that he would issue a ruling on the request to temporarily block the law by next week but frankly acknowledged that the ruling would be appealed by the unsuccessful party. Looking ahead, Marks asked lawyers to begin deliberating over a date for a trial, which he said they could finalize after receiving a response from the Montana Supreme Court on the preliminary injunction matter.