A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Arkansas’s ban on gender-confirming treatments for transgender youths as a lawsuit over the first-in-the-nation state law advances.
The decision came in response to a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought a preliminary injunction blocking the law enacted by Republican state legislators in April.
Judge Jay Moody of the U.S. District Court in Little Rock also denied the state’s motion to dismiss the A.C.L.U.’s suit seeking to overturn the law.
The ban on sex reassignment surgery and gender-confirming treatments, like hormone treatment and puberty-blocking medication, was set to take effect on July 28. “This ruling sends a clear message to states across the country.