Federal judge blocks Arkansas trans youth treatment ban

(AP) A federal judge has temporarily blocked Arkansas' ban on gender confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody in Little Rock issued the ruling Wednesday. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in May asking the judge to strike down the law that made Arkansas the first state to forbid doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or sex reassignment surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for such treatment. Arkansas’ GOP-dominated Legislature overrode Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure.