DOJ challenges Alabama law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth

What they're saying: "The law discriminates against transgender minors by unjustifiably denying them access to certain forms of medically necessary care ... [that are] well recognized within the medical community as medically appropriate and necessary, while imposing no comparable limitation on medically necessary care by cisgender minors," the complaint alleges.

• A doctor is allowed to prescribe testosterone for a cisgender adolescent boy if he is suffering delayed pubertal development, but "the law makes it a felony for the same doctor to prescribe the same testosterone to a transgender male youth to affirm his gender identity," per the complaint.
• The DOJ also notes that the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees gender-affirming care is "safe, effective, and medically necessary treatment for the health and well-being of some children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria."

Worth noting: Two physicians, along with the families of two transgender teenagers, have filed suit seeking to overturn the Alabama law.

The big picture: Medical associations including the American Medical Association have urged governors to oppose such measures, saying trans and nonbinary gender identities are "normal variations of human identity and expression."

• Health experts and pediatricians have also expressed concern that the flood of bills criminalizing gender-affirming care could contribute to a new rash of mental health crises among trans kids.
• A January poll found that over two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said recent debates about state laws targeting trans people have negatively impacted their mental health.

Go deeper: Culture war around care for transgender kids heats up