Federal judge temporarily blocks enforcement of Arkansas ban on gender confirming treatment for transgender youth

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked Arkansas’ ban on gender confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody in Little Rock issued the ruling Wednesday. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in May asking the judge to strike down the law that made Arkansas the first state to forbid doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or sex reassignment surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for such treatment. Arkansas’ GOP-dominated Legislature overrode Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure.