The Department of Justice (DOJ) views the issue of gender reassignment surgeries for minors as a “battlefront,” one of its officials acknowledged at a seminar last week.
"Sadly we are seeing states all across the country right now that are adopting laws that restrict or ban access to gender-affirming care," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke said in statements leaked by the Higher Ground association to the Daily Caller.
Later, Clarke acknowledged that the DOJ is devoting resources to fight: " We are finding states that are criminalizing access to gender-affirming care and we are getting involved in a number of those cases in Alabama (and) Arkansas."
At the Justice Department we are busy in the courts and really using litigation to fight back to stand up for children, to stand up for their parents, to stand up for their teachers and their medical providers, all of whom are facing discrimination and harassment
The battlefield
In April 2021, Arkansas became the first state to prevent gender reassignment medical treatments for minors. This measure has been followed by a score of similar laws throughout the country.
Then Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, vetoed the law. The story did not end there: the rule was reinstated by legislators, temporarily blocked by the courts, and then permanently blocked by federal Judge Jay Moody, who ruled it unconstitutional.
Current Governor Sarah Huckabee enacted another law that pursues the same objective. This time, medical providers could be punished with up to 15 years in prison if they perform such procedures on those under the age of 18.
Arkansas is exemplary not only for being the first such law, but for the judicial ups and downs that are defining the future of transgender medical treatment for minors.
In at least six states, state judges have temporarily or completely blocked similar legislation, including Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. In several of these cases, Republican sponsors or prosecutors have vowed to take the cases to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Although in her recent statements the assistant attorney general did not detail the DOJ's role in promoting the judicial offensive in Arkansas and Alabama, her words do help to understand the uncertain status of these laws in the courts.
The government comes to the defense of the LGBT lobby
Transition treatments are not the only judicial front opened by the DOJ in the fight over gender ideology.
Clarke also explained that they "did some work" in Indiana to defend a school's internal rules that required staff to refer to minors by their preferred pronouns.
She also recalled that the federal department filed a statement of interest in favor of a trans minor who had sued the West Virginia Board of Education to be allowed to compete on the women's cross-country team.
It is also currently acting on behalf of a teacher who lost his job because of his LGBT activism.
The FBI and the Department of Education are also part of this offensive. Clarke highlighted the importance of the security and intelligence service in detecting what she describes as "hate crimes," after acknowledging that it was on "the darker side of the conversation."
Another speaker at the seminar, Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department's assistant secretary for civil rights, added that thanks to her intervention, one school changed its dress code to allow a five-year-old student to attend the classroom with an earring.
