Are anti-LGBTQ laws legal? Alabama trans laws spark debate over Constitutional rights

• Alabama's governor signed bills limiting transgender youth access to healthcare and sports.
• Last week, the DOJ reminded states of federal anti-discrimination obligations regarding such laws.
• A Human Rights Campaign attorney called Alabama's laws "breathtakingly cruel and cowardly."

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Friday bills blocking transgender youth from gender-affirming medical treatment as well as from participating on sports teams or using school restrooms that don't match their assigned sex at birth. The latter also bans the teaching of gender and sexual identity in kindergarten through fifth grades.

The Alabama medical treatment law is among the nation's most far-reaching, threatening doctors with up to 10 years in prison for prescribing puberty blockers or hormonal treatment to trans kids under 19.