The far-right’s culture war against transgender youth and others in the LGBTQ community is just beginning, in Louisiana and elsewhere. Battles are being fought simultaneously in legislatures, in the courts, and in the court of public opinion.
The GOP-controlled Louisiana Legislature just overrode Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of an anti-trans youth health care bill that outlaws gender-affirming care for trans kids under age 18.
Far-right evangelicals promptly declared victory, but that hasty declaration ignored the bigger picture.
The scope of the veto session was far broader than the one bill that lawmakers overrode. Edwards vetoed 25 bills and a handful of budget items — all of which conservatives hoped to overturn.
In short order, however, the veto session fizzled. It was a bust for Republicans, who turned on one another in frustration. Evangelical culture warriors also hoped to override two additional anti-LGBTQ bills that Edwards vetoed. That didn’t happen.
Edwards noted in a statement issued after the half-day session ended that he had vetoed 319 bills since he became governor, and only twice was he overridden: on the congressional redistricting plan that lawmakers adopted last year; and on this anti-trans bill.
On both counts, Edwards cited constitutional defects as reasons for his vetoes. He noted that a federal judge has already thrown out the redistricting law, and he predicts the same fate for the anti-trans measure.
He has reason to feel confident about that prediction, up to a point.
A federal district judge in Arkansas recently threw out that state’s 2021 law banning gender-affirming health care for trans youth. The Arkansas law and Louisiana’s new statute are strikingly similar, both in language and in scope.
In tossing Arkansas’ law, Judge James Moody Jr. issued an 80-page ruling eviscerating every argument — and even some witnesses — brought by proponents of the act. He noted that the treatments banned by Arkansas’ law “are widely recognized in the medical community,” whereas most of the state’s expert witnesses were “unqualified to offer relevant expert testimony” and “were testifying more from a religious doctrinal standpoint rather than that required of experts.”
While such language in a federal court opinion offers hope to trans youth and their families, supporters of the health care prohibitions likewise are hopeful. They know the issue ultimately will land in the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority.
Predicting how the courts will rule is a fool’s game. We saw that when the high court tossed Alabama’s congressional districts.
On culture-war issues, however, the Supremes have largely voted as expected — they overturned Roe v. Wade, tossed affirmative action in college admissions, and allowed businesses to discriminate against gay people based on religious beliefs.
On the other hand, bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth raise several sensitive issues for small-government conservatives. They put government between parents, kids and doctors. They eclipse fundamental parental rights, and they ignore standards approved by the vast majority of medical professionals.
I don’t know how this culture war will end, but I’m confident it won’t end soon.
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