SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender youngsters who’re difficult a Utah regulation banning trans women from enjoying on women’ sports activities groups can hold parts of their psychological well being information confidential after a state decide dominated Thursday that some particulars are irrelevant to the case.

Two student-athletes whose households sued over the 2022 state law had been ordered in September by Judge Keith Kelly to provide state attorneys entry to the final seven years of their psychological well being information, in addition to all paperwork associated to medical transition and puberty.

Kelly temporarily blocked the state from implementing the ban, which took impact final 12 months after the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto, whereas the court docket continues to evaluate its legality.

Cox drew nationwide consideration as one of many few Republican governors who pushed again in opposition to state lawmakers’ restrictions on transgender youth, warning that such bans goal children already at a excessive danger for suicide. Utah is one among greater than a dozen states which have handed such bans.

Kelly dominated final August that transgender women may return to athletic competitors after listening to a number of hours of pupil testimony describing how exclusion from sports activities was inflicting them important misery. He described the ban as “plainly unfavorable treatment” and stated it have to be placed on pause to guard the women from “irreparable harm” and a extreme affect on their psychological well being.

But as a result of the women’ “physical, mental and emotional circumstances” factored into his determination to grant the preliminary injunction, he additionally decided that their psychological well being information had been related to the case.

His ruling Thursday does little to alleviate privateness considerations raised by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, who argue the state mustn’t have entry to the deeply private psychological well being information of youngsters who haven’t waived their therapist-client privilege.

Only particulars regarding irrelevant third events, sure remoted occasions and the scholars’ deadnames, or the beginning names that they not use, will stay redacted, Kelly stated Thursday.

“These children should have the ability to speak freely in their therapy sessions without an intrusion into that privilege that exists between patients and providers,” Amy Whelan, an lawyer for the plaintiffs, informed The Associated Press after the listening to. “And the issues that they’re discussing are really not at issue in a sports case.”

Whelan stated the subsequent step is to work out internally with the state’s legal professionals how these information can be utilized in court docket. Before protection attorneys start taking depositions, the households’ legal professionals will define what they assume is and isn’t acceptable to ask the minor plaintiffs to attempt to decrease “any potential harm or stress that could result,” she stated.

Lawyers from the lawyer common’s workplace, which represents the state, have argued they need to have full entry to the women’ psychological well being information, together with parts that may not appear related to the case, to allow them to assess whether or not the state regulation is liable for the misery the women have described. By centering their arguments across the alleged psychological well being impacts of the ban, protection lawyer Jason Dupree argues the plaintiffs opened the door to an entire examination of their psychological well being historical past.

The lawyer common’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to cellphone messages in search of touch upon the result of Thursday’s listening to.

The women’ households argue of their lawsuit that specific bans on transgender athletes single out their daughters for much less favorable therapy than different women. Their legal professionals say the regulation treats a pupil’s transgender standing as a proxy for athletic capability and fails to think about particular person circumstances.

But supporters of the regulation say transgender athletes have inherent benefits and compromise equity in women’ sports activities.

There have been few circumstances of potential aggressive benefits in Okay-12 sports activities in Utah and in different states passing comparable bans.

With the ban on maintain, a back-up plan for vetting transgender athletes has been met with comparable criticism.

A fee of politically appointed specialists from the athletic and medical fields can now determine on a case-by-case foundation whether or not a transgender athlete’s participation compromises equity. Republican state lawmakers created the fee in one other 2022 regulation as a fallback plan to be carried out in case of an injunction. The panel can evaluate a baby’s top and weight and whether or not they’re taking puberty blocking medication or hormones, which some critics say crosses a line.