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Andrew Bostad (center), here next to his parents, is trans and lives in Arkansas.
The proposed law could result in hormone therapies being banned
Photo: Andrew DeMillo / AP
In the US state, a law should go into effect next week banning hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery for trans teenagers.
Doctors who breached the ban faced penalties.
But now a US judge has blocked the law for the time being.
Judge James Moody issued an injunction on Wednesday pending a lawsuit by four trans teenagers whose parents and two doctors oppose the ban.
"Removing this care from these patients or minors in the medium term would cause irreparable damage," Moody said.
Stronghold of conservative Christians
"We will fight this law as long as necessary to ensure that no young person in Arkansas has to worry about losing their medical care," said lawyer Chase Strangio of the ACLU civil rights group.
Arkansas is known as a stronghold of conservative Christians.
State MPs had overridden a veto by Governor Asa Hutchinson to pass the ban.
Proponents of the law argue that it protects young people from making decisions they may later regret.
Critics see the law, however, as part of a conservative offensive against trans people.
Another law was stopped at short notice.
Arkansas MPs called for abortions to be illegal even after rape.
Civil rights organizations protested massively and now received legal support.
The law would put women "under immediate threat to their constitutional rights," wrote Judge Kristine Baker in her statement, and issued an injunction against the law.
The dispute will soon end up in the Supreme Court.
lau / AFP / AP