Legal agencies Lambda Legal and the National Health Law Program filed a lawsuit against North Carolina on Wednesday to block HB 808, the Act to Prohibit Gender Transition Procedures For Minors. The law — which prohibits doctors from giving gender affirming health care to children under 18 — was implemented on August 16 after the General Assembly voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. Some of the treatments barred because of HB 808 include puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical care.
The law punishes doctors who continue to provide gender-affirming care by revoking the individual’s license. In addition, state funds for North Carolina Medicaid participants can’t be used to pay for gender-affirming medical care to minors.
“This law will inflict harm on North [Carolina] families by denying transgender youth critically-necessary medical treatment that has been proven effective and safe,” Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli said. “Reflecting on National Coming Out Day, this lawsuit fights for the ability of every adolescent to feel cared for and safe. This ban puts LGBTQ youth at risk and creates an unsafe environment for them.”
The complaint notes nine-year-old Victor Voe, a pseudonym to protect the child’s identity, is “terrified of going through a puberty that is completely foreign to him” and “his anxiety is growing.” The suit also says Voe’s parents Vanessa and Vance, “cannot bear to witness their child go through physical changes that will profoundly harm him.” and “do not wish to uproot their lives, nor can they imagine bearing the long-term financial costs associated with leaving the state to get care for Victor.”
“The ban will harm transgender youth and their families across North Carolina, especially those enrolled in Medicaid,” National Health Law Program Senior Attorney Catherine McKee explained. “To put it plainly, these families lack the financial resources to seek care outside the state or to cover the cost of that care themselves. As a result, HB 808 will force transgender adolescents to forgo the gender-affirming care that both their doctors and parents deem necessary.”