A federal appeals court issued a decision Wednesday denying the state s petition to reconsider a district court ruling temporarily blocking the state from enforcing a law passed in 2021 banning gender-affirming care for minors.
With the end of the first week of testimony in federal court regarding Arkansas first-in-the-nation law banning hormone therapy for transgender minors, the parties in the case are now waiting for Nov. 28 and the resumption of testimony, after which they will have to wait again while a federal judge ponders the matter before making a ruling.
Dylan Brandt, a transgender 17-year-old and one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the state s first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender people younger than 18, took the witness stand Wednesday to testify how the care he has received has changed his life and how the threat of withdrawal of that care has affected him.
A bench trial to decide the constitutionality of Arkansas transgender health care ban passed in 2021 but temporarily blocked before it could go into effect got off to a rocky start Monday morning.
Testimony begins today in a trial that could have far-reaching ramifications nationally as four teens and their families hope to permanently strike down an Arkansas law outlawing gender-affirming health care for transgender children.