December 3, 2024
Do the states have the right to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth?
That’s the question the Supreme Court will start pondering tomorrow. And the decision the justices make will have huge implications for not just minors – but for the entire trans community and will test the constitution’s equal protection guarantee.
Tomorrow the justices will hear the case of United States vs Skrmetti. Skrmetti is Jonathan Skrmetti the Attorney General of the state of Tennessee. Last year Tennessee’s legislature passed Senate bill 1 which prohibits *all* “medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” and bans medical professionals from treating “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”
Basically this law bans doctors from providing medical care, like puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, to transgender minors under the age of 18. The Biden administration and three transgendered teenagers and their parents sued saying this law is unconstitutional …it’s a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and they wanted the courts to step in. Well — the sixth circuit court of appeals ruled against them – saying the law does not discriminate based on sex and allowed the law to take effect. The Dept. of Justice appealed to the supreme court and tomorrow they will hear oral arguments. It’s worth noting – one of the lawyers representing the families is the first openly trans attorney to argue in front of the Supreme Court.
So what will they argue? Well — not only does the Biden administration argue the law is unconstitutional but on top of that they say it’s discriminatory. They argue the law allows for a teenager whose sex was assigned male at birth to be prescribed testosterone to conform to a male gender identity, but does not allow a teenager assigned female at birth to have that same prescription. DOJ’s appeal also goes through the real medical repercussions of not allowing someone who is transgendered to be properly treated and also argues that these gender affirming treatments aren’t just given out willy nilly. They required comprehensive assessment to ensure any intervention is medically necessary. DOJ says not treating someone who is in desperate need of intervention can cause serious psychological harm, depression, substance abuse and suicide. For the record – Tennessee is not the only state with a law like this. There are more than two dozen states with similar laws. Some have been blocked by other courts.
The Tennessee lawmakers who support this bill call these types of treatments “barbaric” saying these treatments should be stopped because they have unproven benefits and lifelong harms. For his part, the attorney general of Tennessee has been defending this law since it was enacted in 2023 saying— “we fought hard to defend Tennessee’s law protecting kids from irreversible gender treatments and secured a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion from the sixth circuit. I look forward to finishing the fight in the United States Supreme Court. This case will bring much-needed clarity to whether the constitution contains special protections for gender identity.” The solicitor for the state of Tennessee who will be arguing their case tomorrow was once a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.
Now – he’s right. The way the justices rule on this case will have massive implications for gender identity protections and could open the door for more laws to be passed blocking gender affirming care even for adults.
