North Dakota families challenge state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth

Three North Dakota families with transgender children and a physician are suing the state over a law signed by Republican Gov. Doug Burgum in April that makes it a crime for doctors to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors.

The lawsuit filed Thursday argues North Dakota’s House Bill 1254 violates the constitutional rights of transgender minors by banning the use of medications like puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria, while permitting the same medical care to be provided to patients of any age who are not transgender.

The law, which took effect in April, additionally violates the rights of parents to make medical decisions on behalf of their children and puts health care providers “in an impossible position” by prohibiting them from administering best-practice medical care to young transgender patients, the lawsuit argues.

“We are standing up for all North Dakota kids and families whose lives have been upended by these politically motivated attacks on our rights, our personal freedom, and our ability to decide for ourselves what’s best for our children,” said Devon Dolney, the mother of 12-year-old Tate Dolney, one of the child plaintiffs in the case.

“It makes me sad and angry that people making laws in North Dakota are trying to keep me from having access to care that has helped me live a more full and happy life,” Tate Dolney said Thursday in a statement. “I wish they would understand that me and many other people are just human beings like them trying to live a happy life.”

The plaintiffs in Thursday’s case are represented by Gender Justice, the Lawyering Project and Ciresi Conlin LLP. Defendants include North Dakota’s Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley and three state attorneys general. Wrigley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Passed by the North Dakota legislature and signed by Burgum – a 2024 GOP presidential candidate – in April, House Bill 1254 makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to 360 days in jail and $3,000 in fines to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors. It remains legal in the state to provide the same care to children who are not transgender.

Laws that heavily restrict or ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors – and certain transgender adults in some cases – were adopted by 19 states this year, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks state-level policies impacting LGBTQ Americans. Twenty-two states in total have limited or banned such care.

Five states – North Dakota, Idaho, Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama – have laws in place that make it a crime to provide gender-affirming care to transgender young people, although bans in Oklahoma and Florida are currently blocked by court orders, and Idaho’s ban is not set to take effect until 2024.

A federal appeals court last month lifted an injunction that had for more than a year blocked Alabama from enforcing its felony ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youths under 19. In August, however, the legal team representing the plaintiffs in Alabama said the preliminary injunction will remain in effect “at least for the next two to three months, and possibly longer.”

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