FYP Statement on Arkansas Anti-Trans Law Ruling

In the midst of pernicious and dedicated efforts by conservatives to attack the rights, and lives, of transgender youth through aggressive and dehumanizing state legislation, U.S. District Judge James Moody, Jr. of Little Rock, Arkansas, turned against the tide and issued a pivotal ruling that provides those youth with a chance to live as their truest selves.

Judge Moody’s ruling found that the state of Arkansas had violated several sections of the U.S. Constitution when it banned all gender-affirming treatments for people under 18. The law, which was the first in the nation to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors in 2021, had set the stage for similarly restrictive laws in 19 other states.

In his decision, Judge Moody reasoned that the law was a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and that upholding it would deprive minors of gender affirming treatments, causing them irreparable harm. “Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the State undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Moody wrote.

At the Free to Be Youth Project, we are all too aware of the harm caused by these insidious state bans for those in the LGBTQ+ community, and we feel tremendous relief for transgender youth and their families across Arkansas – and, hopefully, soon across the country. We hope that this decision sparks positive movement for those other states wherein legal challenges, and advocates, continue to push to ensure that this life-saving care is available for trans youth.