Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s preliminary injunction banning the implementation of Idaho’s cruel and discriminatory ban on gender-affirming care was not surprising.
Last month, Winmill found that the bill very likely violates the 14th Amendment’s requirement that all people be given equal protection under the law, as well as due process.
It was obvious from the start that attempts by Republicans in Idaho and elsewhere to engage in legal discrimination are unconstitutional.
Some lawmakers may have been tricked into thinking they were protecting children. To the degree that they believed that, they revealed themselves to be utterly naive, easily manipulable pawns.
They are crushing children.
They are using their overwhelming government powers to engage in bullying.
They are destroying kids’ mental health and making their already difficult lives much harder for no good reason.
And all of them betrayed their oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, as Winmill laid out plainly.
“(It) is important to briefly address a criticism common to court decisions that apply the 14th Amendment to strike down legislative enactments,” Winmill wrote. “Critics say such decisions are anti-democratic and frustrate the will of the people as expressed by their elected legislature. And they are right. But that is precisely how our constitutional democracy is supposed to work. The authors of the 14th Amendment fully understood and intended that the amendment would prevent state legislatures from passing laws that denied equal protection of the laws or invaded the fundamental rights of the people.”
According to Winmill’s ruling, one of the plaintiffs in the case “struggled with anxiety, depression and self-harm,” and had to be admitted to a residential treatment facility as she entered puberty. Her mental health improved after moving through incremental stages of gender-affirming care.
Another plaintiff testified that anti-transgender bills affected her mental health and her grades, and caused her family to consider leaving Idaho so she would continue to access the medical care that has helped her so significantly.
Those who support bans on gender-affirming care should reflect on those facts with shame.
Just as other states before them, Idaho’s Republican-dominated Legislature heard many stories like these in committee hearings before it did what it often does — ignored the testimony and the overwhelming medical consensus, and stripped Americans of their rights. Legislators’ heartless decision to turn their backs on vulnerable children should haunt their consciences.
They also voted to strip parents of their rights to manage the care of their children in consultation with doctors, which puts the lie to any claim they support “parental rights.” Instead, they wish to write into law what a family can be and do according to culturally conservative values.
Let’s hope lawmakers who support bullying and discriminatory bills get the message: It is not your place to make other people’s private decisions, to decide how their families work, to decide how they should live. Respect constitutional rights or get out of the business of writing laws.
Bryan Clark is an opinion writer with the Idaho Statesman.
