Federal Court Rules State of Florida’s Transgender Healthcare Ban Discriminates Against State Employees on the Basis of Sex. Federal district court judge Mark Walker ruled in favor of transgender state employees in SLC’s lawsuit Claire v. Florida Department of Management Services, finding that the state of Florida’s transgender healthcare ban discriminates against state employees on the basis of sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on July 10 denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a Florida statute that bars transgender and nonbinary teachers from using titles and pronouns that express their gender identities and threatens to decertify and fire teachers who do so.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger ruled July 18 that a Daytona Beach ordinance that criminalizes requests for donations under certain circumstances and in certain public spaces is unconstitutional. Berger’s order permanently blocks Daytona Beach from enforcing the ordinance and sets a damages trial for Sept. 16.

Federal Court Rebukes State Defendants for “Misleading Assertions.”

Yesterday, a federal district court denied the State of Florida’s request to stay a June 11 decision blocking enforcement of Florida’s law banning health care for transgender minors and restricting it for transgender adults.

“With legislators having loudly and proudly proclaimed their [anti-transgender] bias, the defendants ought not be allowed to hide from it now”

Criminalizing homelessness can cause a destabilizing cascade of harm. Rather than helping people to regain housing, obtain employment, or access needed treatment and services, criminalization creates a costly revolving door that circulates individuals experiencing homelessness from the street to the criminal justice system and back. - Justice Sotomayor’s dissent

State of Florida Loses Federal Challenge as Court Strikes Down and Enjoins Law Targeting Transgender Adults and Adolescents

Today’s ruling in Doe v. Ladapo permanently blocks adult and minor health care restrictions in Florida SB 254 and the Florida Boards of Medicine rules and finds that Florida unlawfully targeted transgender people, in challenge brought by Southern Legal Counsel, GLAD, NCLR, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and Lowenstein Sandler.

The judge made it clear that no one will be sentenced to jail for municipal ordinance violations anymore unless the city provides them with counsel.

Southern Legal Counsel and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of trans and non-binary activists, asking a federal court to declare Florida’s bathroom ban unconstitutional and to issue an order temporarily prohibiting authorities from enforcing it against them while they are in Florida in the coming weeks.

FREE LEGAL NAME CHANGE CLINIC ON OCTOBER 25, 2023! Southern Legal Counsel’s Transgender Rights Initiative, in collaboration with León Cosgrove Jiménez, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, P.A., have partnered to provide another free Zoom clinic to assist trans adults, and parents of trans minors, with navigating the process of obtaining a court ordered legal name change in Florida, and the subsequent processes of amending the legal name and gender marker on government-issued identification documents. Register today by filling out the Registration Form - don’t miss your chance to get free assistance with your legal name and gender marker change!

U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a Daytona Beach ordinance that prohibits asking for donations under certain circumstances and in certain public spaces, which plaintiffs argue is a violation of their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.

The bans deny care to transgender adolescents, even when they, their doctors, and their parents agree it is essential for their health.