Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron on Friday challenged a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily blocked parts of the state’s ban on gender-transition treatments for minors.
Cameron’s emergency motion to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday comes after a federal court ruled last month to temporarily block provisions of the law that banned the use of puberty blockers and hormones in minors.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by seven families with transgender children. The suit argued the new law violates the children’s constitutional rights and interferes with parental rights to seek established medical treatment for their children.
U.S. District Judge David Hale issued a temporary injunction one day before the law was set to take effect. He said the plaintiffs showed “a strong likelihood of success on the merits” of their constitutional challenges.
He added that the gender-transition treatment in question has “a long history of safe use in minors for various conditions.”
In announcing his appeal, Cameron said in a statement it is “indefensible that leftist activists are disguising sterilization and genital surgeries as pediatric care for vulnerable children.”
“Child mutilation is illegal in our Commonwealth, and these reckless hormone interventions are based on an irrational ideology that ignores scientific evidence,” he added. “I will do everything in my power to protect Kentucky kids from this radical agenda, and my office will continue to defend this law at every turn.”
Cameron is running for Kentucky governor against incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear in November. Beshear vetoed the bill on minor gender-transition treatments but his veto was overridden by the GOP-controlled state legislature.