Gender

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications in the legal battle over treatments for transgender children, a fiercely divided federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to reconsider a ruling that backed Alabama’s ban on hormone therapy and puberty blockers for trans minors.The decision by the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals effectively kept in place a ruling by a three-judge panel that overturned a preliminary injunction a district judge had issued blocking the Alabama law.

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a federal rule dealing with Title IX.

A federal judge Wednesday blocked a new Biden administration health-care rule that would clash with Florida’s attempts to restrict treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers for transgender people.

Florida has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that blocked state restrictions on treatment for people with gender dysphoria and wants the ruling put on hold while the appeal plays out.

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Florida education officials from enforcing a law requiring a transgender teacher to use pronouns that align with her sex assigned at birth, saying the law violated her First Amendment rights.The 2023 law restricts educators’ use of personal pronouns and titles in schools. Violations of the law — one of a number of measures backed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting the LGBTQ community over the past few years — can result in teachers being stripped of certifications and hefty financial penalties for school districts.

A federal judge on Friday heard arguments in a court battle over a law restricting educators’ use of personal pronouns and titles in schools, in one of a series of challenges to Florida policies targeting LGBTQ people.Plaintiffs Katie Wood, a transgender Hillsborough County teacher, and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary teacher fired last year by Florida Virtual School, are seeking preliminary injunctions as part of a lawsuit challenging the 2023 law, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A federal judge Friday will hear arguments in an attempt by a transgender teacher and a nonbinary teacher to block part of a 2023 law that restricts pronouns and titles that educators can use in Florida public schools.Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker will consider motions for a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit that contends the restrictions violate a federal civil-rights law and the First Amendment.

Amid what one critic called “an ongoing campaign to make Florida uninhabitable and unsafe for transgender individuals,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration quietly reversed a policy that allowed Floridians to obtain driver’s licenses that reflected their gender identity.Robert Kynoch, deputy executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, on Friday sent a memo outlining the changes to county tax collectors, who process driver’s licenses and state identification cards. The memo said that allowing people to change their gender on licenses and ID cards runs afoul of state law because gender “has historically been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics.”

Mirroring a House bill filed in November, a Senate Republican on Thursday proposed a measure that would place restrictions on government agencies in the use of personal pronouns. Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, filed the proposal (SB 1382) for consideration during the 2024 legislative session, which will start Tuesday.

With the mother of a transgender girl testifying that it would be “devastating” if the child could not get treatment, a federal judge Wednesday began a trial in a constitutional challenge to Florida restrictions on such things as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people.