Amicus Brief Filed to Defend Gender-Affirming Care in Alabama

On Aug. 12, professors from the Yale Law School, Yale School of Medicine, Yale Child Study Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and University of Texas Southwestern filed a brief as amici curiae in Eknes-Tucker v. Governor, State of Alabama with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The case will determine whether to uphold a district court’s preliminary injunction that blocks the implementation of Alabama’s legislative ban on gender-affirming care for adolescents under age 19.

In the brief, the professors argue that the district court properly enjoined the Alabama law and based its decision on a correct understanding of the science that supports gender-affirming care. The faculty members also point out the scientific errors in the brief filed by Alabama in defense of its healthcare ban.

“The District Court’s findings of fact were grounded in the Court’s correct evaluation of the evidence offered by the plaintiffs-appellees and well-supported by reliable scientific evidence,” according to the brief.

“The Alabama District Court followed the law and the science in enjoining Alabama’s attempt to ban gender-affirming care for youth,” said Jacquin D. Bierman Professor Anne Alstott ’87, one of the brief’s co-authors. “Our amicus brief urges the Court of Appeals to affirm the preliminary injunction, which is crucial for ensuring that teens in Alabama have access to critical medical care while the litigation proceeds.”

Several of the amicus brief’s authors, including Alstott, co-authored a major report in May that analyzed in depth the misleading scientific claims that informed recent actions by Texas and Alabama to criminalize medical treatment for transgender youth.

Additional co-authors of the brief include faculty at the Yale School of Medicine and Child Study Center: Susan D. Boulware, M.D.; Rebecca Kamody, Ph.D.; Meredithe McNamara, M.D., M.S.; Christy Olezeski, Ph.D.; and Nathalie Szilagyi, M.D. The group of authors also includes Hussein Abdul-Latif, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham and Laura Kuper, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas.