A 9-year-old filed a lawsuit this week against North Carolina for passing a law prohibiting gender reassignment surgery and the prescribing of puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones.
The plaintiff is a biological girl, and is addressed by the pseudonym “Victor Voe” in the lawsuit. Victor’s parents, Dr. Riley Smith and several LGBTQ+ groups including PFLAG and GLMA joined the lawsuit as well.
The law in question is North Carolina’s House Bill 808 which went into effect on Oct 1.
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but supermajorities in both the North Carolina House and Senate overrode the veto. The Senate’s vote to override the veto was 27-18, and the House’s was 73-46.
The law bars “medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited medical exceptions,” per Politico.
The lawsuit refers to the bill ratified in August as a “health care ban,” and claims it is “unconstitutional.”
It “not only gravely threatens the health and well-being of transgender adolescents in North Carolina; it is also unconstitutional,” per the lawsuit.
Victor’s attorney included, “He (Victor) knew from a very young age that his gender identity did not match his sex assigned at birth, and he generally lives as the boy he is in every aspect of life. However, with his puberty approaching, Victor will soon need medical care that is prohibited by the Health Care Ban.”
The lawsuit also alleges that House Bill 808 and other laws similar to it “gravely and directly threaten the mental health and physical well-being of transgender adolescents in North Carolina.”
But states, including Utah, and several countries, including the United Kingdom, have banned or limited gender transition surgery for children and teens because of limited research on their side-effects, as well as the risk young people may change their minds later.