Arkansas legislators enact an anti-transgender law over the governor's veto. [View all]
Source: New York Times
The Arkansas State Legislature voted Tuesday afternoon to override a veto from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and enact a law banning gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors. Mr. Hutchinson, a Republican, had vetoed the bill on Monday, calling it “overbroad” and “extreme.” The legislature voted overwhelmingly, 71 to 24 in the House and 25 to 8 in the Senate, to override him. The American Civil Liberties Union announced immediately that it would challenge the law, known as H.B. 1570, in court.
The law is premised on the claim, as stated in its text, that “the risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.” But research shows the opposite. The Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics lobbied against the bill, and other medical organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, support gender-affirming treatment.
Sam Brinton, vice president for advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, an L.G.B.T. suicide prevention organization, said research showed that more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth had seriously considered suicide, and that many of them cited discrimination as a driving factor. “These types of bills endanger young trans lives,” Mx. Brinton said after the governor’s veto on Monday. In a statement after legislators overrode the veto, they said: “Governor Hutchinson listened to trans youth and their doctors. The state legislature clearly did not.”
Federal case law on transgender rights is much more limited than on gay rights, which means challenges to the Arkansas law could lead to new legal precedents if they reach higher courts. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said that the A.C.L.U. and other organizations could seek a temporary injunction to block the law from taking effect while the challenges proceed. If a district court ruled against the law, Arkansas could appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which consists largely of Republican appointees.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/06/us/biden-news-today/arkansas-anti-transgender-law-veto
This was pretty much expected.
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