Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has taken the lead in a 24-state coalition supporting Ohio's law that prohibits experimental sex-change procedures for minors. The group has submitted a brief urging the Ohio Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision that blocked the enforcement of this law, arguing it conflicts with standards set by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
Marshall contends that the Ohio court of appeals erred by deferring to WPATH rather than the state legislature on medical regulation matters. He emphasized that government should regulate private interest groups and medical providers, not vice versa.
Marshall criticized WPATH as an unreliable entity. He cited evidence from Alabama’s case defending its own similar law, revealing that WPATH allegedly crafted its "Standards of Care" document to further political interests over evidence-based medicine and patient welfare.
“Even after Alabama uncovered the devastating court-ordered discovery that dismantled the thinly veiled medical guidelines, the Ohio courts still cherrypicked amicus briefs filed in another case to find that WPATH’s guidelines are the prevailing standards of care that Ohio somehow became powerless to disagree with,” stated Attorney General Marshall. “The court should have instead deferred to the government’s regulation protecting vulnerable children who deserve so much better than WPATH’s faulty ‘standards.’”
The coalition's brief requests a review of the decision made by Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals.
In Alabama’s dismissed case, Boe v. Marshall, findings suggested key organizations like WPATH misled parents and promoted unproven treatments as settled science while ignoring international concerns about using sex-change procedures for minors with gender dysphoria. Internal communications revealed WPATH's "Standards of Care" were influenced by lawyers and advocacy groups aiming to win lawsuits and shape policy decisions.
Attorney General Marshall has defended Alabama’s statute successfully and played a national role by filing legal briefs supporting similar laws in other states, utilizing evidence from Alabama's discovery process.
The brief was filed on behalf of 24 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah Virginia and West Virginia.