Colorado Supreme Court Orders Hospital To Resume Transgender Treatments For Minors

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics

The Colorado Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado on Monday to resume providing certain medical services to a group of transgender plaintiffs, which it had ceased in the face of funding threats from the federal government last year.

The unusual appeal before the Supreme Court stemmed from a trial judge’s rejection of a preliminary injunction to four trans plaintiffs who are minors seeking treatment from Children’s Colorado. The plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that the cessation of services based on their status violates the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

While multiple considerations inform whether a judge should grant an injunction, the Supreme Court’s majority concluded the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their underlying discrimination claims and that the hypothetical harm to the broader public from withdrawn federal funding could not outweigh the plaintiffs’ rights.

A “strict numerical comparison of affected individuals isn’t appropriate when the individuals seeking injunctive relief are part of a protected class and seeking an injunction because of discrimination based on that protected class. Were it otherwise, minority groups would always lose. But that is not the law,” wrote Justice William W. Hood III in the May 18 opinion.

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