When the Missouri legislature and Gov. Mike Parson approved and signed the SAFE Act into law, an LGBTQ advocate said it was an attack on transgender people.
“This law is not just harmful and cruel; it is life-threatening,” said Nora Huppert, staff attorney at Lambda Legal, a national legal group that represents LGBTQ persons. “SB 49 would deny adolescent transgender Missourians access to evidence-based treatment supported by the overwhelming medical consensus.”
Huppert was responding to the news that three families of transgender young people have sued Parson in Cole County Circuit Court to block Senate Bill 49.
“The stories of the families challenging the law demonstrate the immense, devastating harm it is already inflicting on their lives,” Huppert said.
SB 49, also known as the SAFE Act, prevents transgender adolescents in Missouri from accessing gender-affirming medical care and bars Missouri's Medicaid program from providing payment for gender transition surgeries, cross-sex hormones, or puberty-blocking drugs for the purpose of gender transition.
“Medical treatments recommended for and provided to transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria can substantially reduce lifelong gender dysphoria and eliminate the medical need for surgery or other medical interventions later in life,” the complaint states. “The Act tramples the rights of transgender adolescents and their parents, as well as the medical professionals who provide vital care to transgender adolescents.”
SB 49 becomes enforceable statewide on Aug. 28. Other plaintiffs include medical providers, Southampton Community Healthcare, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (NGLMA)’s Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality.
"Extreme politicians in Missouri, like the Attorney General, have made known their desire to ban gender-affirming care throughout the State,” said Gillian Wilcox, ACLU of Missouri deputy director of litigation. “This legislation targets very specific, vulnerable populations - young people, those who access health care through Medicaid, and incarcerated individuals - to replace private medical decisions with the will of politicians in Jefferson City."
The plaintiffs seek a temporary and permanent injunction against the new law.
The Missouri General Assembly approved SB 49 on May 10 and Gov. Parson signed it into law on June 7 after Attorney General Bailey rescinded an emergency rule seeking to impose limits on gender-affirming care for transgender people of all ages.
The Experimental Interventions to Treat Gender Dysphoria rule was similarly challenged by Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Missouri in Southampton Community Healthcare v. Bailey on behalf of Southampton Community Healthcare, Kelly Storck, Logan Casey and the families of two young transgender people who sought a temporary restraining order against it.
The 21st Judicial Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo granted a temporary restraining order which blocked the emergency rule's enforcement on May 16.