The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments on denying medical treatment to transgender children
- Tennessee law prohibits hormone therapy and other treatments
- A decision on the case is not expected until June
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on a controversial Tennessee law that denies medical treatment to transgender children.
The court won’t make a final decision until next year — likely in June — but more than 25 other states have similar laws that could be affected.
The decision will be a major statement on transgender rights amid a nationwide debate over the role gender identity should play in things like sports and bathrooms. And it comes after voters overwhelmingly embraced Donald Trump’s pledge to roll back some protections for transgender people.
The debates start at 10am.
Tennessee law prohibits doctors from prescribing drugs that delay puberty, providing hormone therapy or performing surgery to treat “perceived discomfort or distress resulting from a discrepancy between the minor’s gender and asserted identity.”
It is challenged by three families and a doctor. They are supported by President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major transgender rights case
The Biden administration says there is no way to determine whether “treatment should be withheld from a particular minor” without considering the minor’s gender.
“That is sex discrimination,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in her filing on the law.
The law allows the same treatments for people with “a birth defect, precocious puberty, disease or physical injury,” leading plaintiffs to argue that the law violates the Constitution by denying transgender people equal protection and discriminating against them on based on gender.
The lead attorney, Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, is the first openly transgender person to argue before the justices.
Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association.
But Tennessee points to health authorities in Sweden, Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom who have found the medical treatments “carry significant risks with unproven benefits.”
The Williams family of Nashville, Tennessee are among those challenging the state law. Brian Williams said that as a result of puberty blockers and hormone treatments, his transgender daughter, LW, is doing “16-year planning for her future, making her own music and looking at colleges.”
But because of Tennessee’s ban, she must travel to another state to get the health care that “we and her doctors know is right for her.”
Chase Strangio (right), an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, is the first openly transgender person to argue before the justices; Chase is seen above with Sara Ramirez and Laverne Cox before the Supreme Court in October 2019
One of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, Dr. Susan Lacy, poses for a portrait at her clinic in Memphis, Tennessee
The case came to the Supreme Court after a divided three-judge panel in Cincinnati upheld the Tennessee law, saying it was a reasonable legislative response to disputed medical evidence.
It is the second case the Supreme Court has heard regarding transgender rights.
Four years ago, the court ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired from a Michigan funeral home after informing the owner that she was a transgender woman. The court ruled that transgender people, as well as gays and lesbians, are protected by federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace.