Plaintiffs who had filed federal lawsuits challenging two recently signed Alabama laws dealing with transgender issues dropped their suits Friday (April 15).
Alabama lawmakers passed two bills related to transgender and sexuality issues on the last day of the 2022 session, April 7.
Senate Bill 184, known as the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, bans certain medical therapies for transgender minors.
House Bill 322 is a measure that requires people in public kindergarten through 12th grade schools to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificates.
The bill also includes a provision that prohibits teachers and others from teaching or discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in public kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed both bills into law April 8, and both are set to take effect May 8.
Suits filed, dropped
Two families of transgender teens and two doctors filed suit against the state over SB 184, but Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Friday that the plaintiffs had simultaneously dropped their challenges to the law.
The plaintiffs released no statement, though an attorney for one family said the suit would be refiled immediately.
In an April 16 statement, Marshall said a “fleet of activist groups” were behind the legal challenges, despite lawmakers’ hopes the new law will “protect children from experimental medical interventions that have no proven benefits and carry with them substantial risk of long-term, irreversible harm.”
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