Know Your Rights: Trans Youth Healthcare Ban

Louisiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, also called the “Health Care Ban,” went into effect on January 1, 2024. This page will help you understand what that means and provide resources for navigating the ban.

The folks over at the Campaign for Southern Equality have created a fund to support local trans folks to access care in states that haven’t banned it. Learn more about the project and apply for funding here.

The folks are Lambda Legal and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School filed suit on Jan. 8, 2024, on behalf of five transgender Louisiana youth and their families against the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners to block the implementation of Act 466 (HB 648). Read more here.

Thank you, A’Niya Robinson, Esq, for creating the original version of this document!

HB648 — Act 466 from the 2023 Regular Session (Effective Date: January 1, 2024)

How This Law Applies:

• This law prohibits gender-affirming surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty-blocking therapies for people under 18.

• This law allows:

  • mental healthcare services for ALL people (including those under 18)

  • Gender-affirming surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty-blocking therapies for emancipated minors and people over 18.

  • Social transitioning, such as changing one’s name and pronouns and wearing different clothing or hairstyles.

  • Going to another state to get access to gender-affirming care where it is legal.

  • Sharing information about how to access gender-affirming care and related resources

  • Donating to funds or organizations that support people seeking gender-affirming care

  • Taking someone 18 or older to another state to access gender-affirming care.

  • Taking a minor to another state to access gender-affirming care, but only with permission from the minor and the minor’s parent or legal guardian.

  • Possessing HRT medication 

• This law also allows care given to minors for the following conditions via exemption: 

• A “medically verifiable disorder of sex development.”  

• An “injury caused” by accessing gender-affirming surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty-blocking therapies.

• A “certified injury” that would place the “individual in imminent danger of death or impairment of major bodily function unless surgery is performed.” 

Penalties:

• You ARE NOT breaking the law by accessing gender-affirming care in a state where it is legal or traveling outside of Louisiana for that purpose.

• Penalties cover healthcare professionals who are accused of providing gender-affirming care.

  • A healthcare professional can have their license or certificate revoked by a professional or occupational licensing board for a minimum of 2 years.

  • Individuals who have been “harmed” by a violation of the ban can file civil suits for damages against the medical provider who violated the ban. A suit must be filed before the minor patient turns 30 or within 3 years of the treatment or procedure, whichever is longer. 

• Penalties are civil penalties for those who provide gender-affirming care. As of now, there are no criminal consequences to providing gender-affirming care. 

Where can I go to access gender-affirming care?

• You can see states where gender-affirming care is legal on this interactive map.

What if I need help paying for gender-affirming care or other costs?

• The folks over at the Campaign for Southern Equality have created a fund to support local trans folks to access care in states that haven’t banned it. Learn more about the project and apply for funding here.

How can I help others without breaking the law?

• The First Amendment protects your right to share information about how to access treatment and other services that are lawful in other states, like gender-affirming care. That’s true even if those things aren’t permitted in Louisiana, as long as you aren’t helping someone break the law. For example, you can share information about:

• States where gender-affirming care is legal

• Organizations that can help people pay for gender-affirming care or travel out of state

• Organizations that provide gender-affirming care and medication

• Organizations offering assistance to people seeking gender-affirming care

• How to donate to organizations that provide resources for people seeking gender-affirming care

• Protecting privacy: The risks related to accessing gender-affirming care are mainly related to legal consequences, not medical. Although the Louisiana law does not prohibit accessing information or sharing information with others, it’s important to note that when communicating with someone seeking gender-affirming care or helping them research options, their privacy is only as safe as yours is. See below for tips on digital security.

An Important Note About Medical Records: Under HIPAA, the disclosure of protected health information about gender-affirming care without consent is generally prohibited, but there are exceptions that law enforcement officials and others can try to exploit. One of these limited circumstances—where disclosure may be possible without a patient’s consent—is when disclosure is required under another law. Examples include court orders, subpoenas or summons, grand jury requests, or lawsuits. And even then, the disclosure should be limited to only relevant information. 

When researching resources or communicating with others, it’s important to both take digital security precautions and to understand the limits of those precautions. It is probably not possible to protect against 100% of digital surveillance techniques, but there are some helpful precautions that you can consider.

It’s also important to remember that digital security depends on every person on each end of a communication. For example, communicating in writing (like texts, emails, and social media messaging) always creates a paper trail. And even if some people in a text thread take security measures, but others don’t, then the whole conversation is less secure.

Here are some tips:

• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

• What it does:  A VPN ensures that your browsing history is not visible to your internet service provider (ISP). That is important because even if you delete your browsing history or use a private browser, authorities can obtain your browsing history from your ISP. For example, if you used a VPN to research abortion pill access, your ISP would have no record of your web activity. You can find several affordable and reliable VPN services here.

• What it doesn’t do:  If you use a VPN on your smartphone, your web traffic will be secure, but your phone’s location will not be secure. That’s because your phone has to register to a nearby cell tower before connecting to the VPN. 

• Encrypted messaging

• What it does:  Encrypted messaging apps like Signal scramble messages so that it’s indecipherable to anyone except their intended recipient, even if a message is intercepted by authorities.

• What it doesn’t do: 

• Some encrypted messaging services, like Apple’s iMessage and WhatsApp, backup messages to the cloud without encryption, which authorities can then obtain with a court order and use in a criminal investigation.

• Anonymous Encrypted Email

• What it does: Free encrypted email services, like ProtonMail, allow you to send emails that are scrambled in the same way that encrypted messages are.

• What it doesn’t do: Emails will still have an IP address attached to them, which can be used to identify the computer where the email originated. Authorities can seek court orders to obtain personal data from emails, like IP addresses.

• Private web browsing

• What it does: Using the “private” or “incognito” mode on your web browser or using a private browser that uses a private mode by default will prevent your device from creating a record of your internet history. This would prevent authorities from using your physical device to go through your internet history. Examples of private browsers are Firefox Focus and DuckDuckGo.

• What it doesn’t do: Private web browsing does not shield your internet activity from your ISP like a VPN does. That means that without a VPN, authorities could still access your web history from your ISP with a court order. In addition, if you are logged into Google, Facebook, TikTok, or other social media, those companies will maintain a record of your activity and any direct messages with friends.

Disclaimer: The following information does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or medical advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.  Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.  This website contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader. For advice about your specific situation, you should always seek advice from a licensed provider or an attorney who represents you.

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