HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A federal judge nominated to the bench by then-President Donald Trump has issued a preliminary injunction against the parts of a new Alabama law that prohibit the use of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones on “transgender” youth. He left intact the state ban on “sex-altering” surgeries for minors, as well as sections prohibiting schools from keeping students’ gender identity struggles secret from their parents or encouraging youth to hide such information from them.
“The record shows that, without transitioning medications, Minor Plaintiffs will suffer severe medical harm, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, self-harm, and suicidality,” wrote U.S. District Judge Liles S. Burke on Friday. “Additionally, the evidence shows that Minor Plaintiffs will suffer significant deterioration in their familial relationships and educational performance.”
Therefore, “the court finds that there is a substantial likelihood that Section 4(a)(1)–(3) of the Act is unconstitutional and, thus, enjoins Defendants from enforcing that portion of the Act pending trial,” he declared. “However, all other provisions of the Act remain in effect . . .”
As previously reported, Senate Bill (S.B.) 184, also known as the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, was signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey on April 8. It defines sex as “the biological state of being female or male, based on sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles, … genetically encoded into a person at the moment of conception, [which] … cannot be changed.”
The bill, presented in the legislature earlier this year by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, and Rep. Wes Allen, R-Troy, states that while some may experience psychological distress due to a discordance between their biological sex and their inclinations, the inner turmoil is subject to change. It expresses concern over the lifelong effects of puberty blockers and other such “treatments” on minors.
“Minors, and often their parents, are unable to comprehend and fully appreciate the risk and life implications, including permanent sterility, that result from the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures,” the law states.
It argues that these practices do not eradicate the person’s suffering, as they do not solve the underlying issue, and that youth are “incapable of comprehending the negative implications and life-course difficulties attending to these interventions.”
S.B. 184 therefore bans their usage on youth under the age of 19, criminalizing the act as a class C felony.
In April, the parents of two “transgender” minors filed suit, along with two doctors who support the protocols. New suits soon also arose, which included the parents of a preteen and three teenagers, along with Paul Eknes-Tucker, who leads Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Birmingham.
The Biden administration later filed an intervention to add its voice to those who oppose the law.
“This lawsuit challenges a state statute that denies necessary medical care to children based solely on who they are,” the complaint claimed. “[The ban] discriminates on the basis of both sex and transgender status in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
On Friday, Judge Burke sided in part with the complainants, opining that they will “suffer irreparable harm absent injunction relief.”
“Based [on] the record evidence, the court finds that the imminent threat of harm to Parent Plaintiffs and Minor Plaintiffs — i.e., severe physical and/or psychological harm — outweighs the harm the State will suffer from the injunction,” he wrote.
“The court further finds that an injunction is not adverse to the public interest,” Burke continued. “To the contrary, enjoining the Act upholds and reaffirms the ‘enduring American tradition’ that parents — not the states or federal courts — play the primary role in nurturing and caring for their children.”
Following the issuance of the preliminary injunction, Gov. Ivey vowed to defend the law as the case moves forward in court.
“We will continue fighting to protect Alabama’s children from these radical, unproven, life-altering drugs, despite this temporary legal roadblock,” she said in a statement. “It is especially important while they are at such a vulnerable stage in life. We will continue to uphold our duty to ensure that children are free to grow up into the adults God intended them to be, even with today’s societal pressures and modern culture.”
THE GOSPEL
As previously reported, while some view transgenderism as a medical condition, Christians believe the matter is also a spiritual issue at its root — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face due to the Fall.
The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of breaking free by themselves.
“Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself,” wrote the late preacher and Bible commentator Alexander Maclaren.
It is why Jesus came: to free men from the bondage of sin (1 John 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and reconcile those alienated from God because of their sin to the Father (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:20).
“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Paul declared in Romans 7:24-25.
Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be reborn spiritually by the Holy Spirit, having their very nature transformed from being in Adam (Ephesians 2:1-3) and metamorphosing into a new creation in Christ, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven. It is known in Christianity as the doctrine of regeneration.
2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.”
“But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralyzed beyond writhing and indifferent, because [they are] hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity,” Maclaren declared, “comes one whose name is ‘The Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free.”
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