Tue Aug 30, 2022 – 4:56 pm EDT
RICHMOND (LifeSiteNews) – A panel of federal judges has decided the federal Americans with Disabilities Act should be interpreted to accommodate gender dysphoria, in a ruling with potentially massive implications for Republican states’ efforts to curtail the “transitioning” of minors.
CBS 46 reports that a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals sided 2-1 with Kesha Williams, a gender-confused man who sued the sheriff of Fairfax County, Virginia over being incarcerated with other males, treated as male, denied cross-sex hormones, and denied requests to have a female officer conduct his body searches. Williams, who had not yet had gender-reassignment surgery, named the sheriff, a deputy who allegedly harassed him, and the nurse who recognized him as male in the suit.
A district court initially rejected Williams’ complaints on the grounds that the ADA explicitly excludes “gender identity disorders.” But the appellate judges concluded there was a “meaningful difference” between “gender identity disorders” and “gender dysphoria,” citing the American Psychiatric Association’s replacement of the former term with the latter.
While the ruling is only directly binding on Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia (the
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at LifeSite News
The views expressed in this news alert by the author do not directly represent that of The Christian Journal or its editors