A Kansas state judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a law banning sex change treatments for “transgender” minors, declaring the ban likely unconstitutional under the Kansas Constitution.
On Friday, District Court Judge Carl Folsom III issued a preliminary injunction halting the state’s 2025 ban, Senate Bill 63, known as the “Help Not Harm Act.”
The Republican-controlled legislature passed the measure over the veto of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. It prohibits doctors from providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or other gender transition treatments to anyone under 18.
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by two transgender teenagers, identified in court records as Lily Loe and Ryan Roe, and their parents.
The families, represented by the ACLU of Kansas and the law firm Ballard Spahr, argued the ban interferes with parents’ right to make medical decisions for their children.
In his opinion, Judge Folsom wrote that the Kansas Constitution protects “personal autonomy,” which includes “the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their minor children.”
The judge described genderbending care as “the treatment with the most evidence of being helpful to treat gender dysphoria” and said it is “harmful to withhold medical treatment or withdraw medical treatment in progress that is safe, effective, and medically indicated.”
The ACLU celebrated the ruling.
“This is an enormous relief to our clients and families across the state of Kansas,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Rights Project, in a press release. “The medical care unjustly banned by this law serves as the foundation of young transgender people’s entire lives and helps give them the future all young people deserve. Any decision about this medical care should be between families and their doctors, and today’s order from the court restores that fundamental principle. We will continue to challenge this law until Kansas is a safe place to raise every family.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach immediately condemned the decision as “a stark example of judicial activism” in a statement provided to local station KSHB.
Kobach stated the judge “invented a new constitutional right” because the Kansas Constitution says nothing about such a parental right to obtain treatments that would otherwise be illegal for minors.
The state will file an immediate appeal, Kobach vowed.
The temporary injunction will remain in effect until the full lawsuit goes to trial.
A date for the trial has not been scheduled yet.
The post Kansas Judge Blocks Ban on Sex Change Treatments for ‘Transgender’ Kids, Claiming It Violates State Constitution and Parental Rights appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.