The family of a transgender boy in North Carolina is suing state health officials to block implementation of gender-affirming care restrictions that they say will force their son to undergo a traumatic wrong-gender puberty. A federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court alleges that the new state law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by denying treatment access to transgender youths and undercuts parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children. The plaintiff is a 9-year-old transgender boy and the lawsuit calls him Victor Voe, a pseudonym used for safety and privacy reasons. Joining the youth and his parents in the lawsuit are a local doctor and several LGBTQ+ rights groups. The North Carolina lawsuit closely follows the playbook of other successful court challenges to gender-affirming care bans that have swept Republican-controlled states this year. State leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services and the N.C. Medical Board are named as defendants in the lawsuit, since they're tasked with enforcing the new rules. The concerned law, which passed earlier this year as House Bill 808, bans medical treatments such as puberty blockers, surgery and other gender-affirming care for transgender people until they're at least 18 years old. It passed mostly along party lines at the state legislature, with all Republicans in favor and nearly all Democrats opposed.
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