The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the ban on transgender health care for minors
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed on the legality of a Republican-backed ban in Tennessee on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, as the justices waded into another controversial issue involving LGBTQ+ rights.
They appealed a lower court’s decision by Joe Biden’s administration to uphold a ban on medical treatments, including hormones and surgery, for minors experiencing gender dysphoria in Tennessee. The court will hear the case during the next hearing, which starts in October.
The challengers argue that banning the care of transgender youth violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which violates equal protection and due process guarantees by discriminating against these adolescents on the basis of gender and transgender identity, and the fundamental right of parents to access and make decisions about medical care for their children is undermined. .
Republican-led states have passed numerous similar measures in recent years that target health care for trans youth with gender dysphoria, such as medications or surgical procedures — the clinical diagnosis for significant suffering that can result from an incongruence between a person’s gender identity and the gender they to have. assigned at birth.
Lawmakers who support the restrictions have questioned the treatments, calling them experimental and potentially harmful. Medical associations, noting that gender dysphoria is associated with higher suicide rates, have said gender-affirming care can be lifesaving and that long-term studies show its effectiveness.
Read more: The Supreme Court’s decisions this month
Tennessee law bans health care providers from administering puberty blockers and hormones to trans youth, but allows treatment for cisgender youth with congenital disorders or early puberty. Providers may be prosecuted and may face fines and professional discipline for violations.
Several plaintiffs, including two transgender boys and a transgender girl, and their parents, have filed a lawsuit in Tennessee to defend treatments that they say have improved their happiness and well-being. The Biden administration intervened in the lawsuit to also challenge the law.
A federal judge blocked the law in Tennessee in 2023, ruling that it likely violates the 14th Amendment.
In a 2-1 decision in September 2023, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judge’s preliminary orders.
“Prohibiting citizens and lawmakers from voicing their views on high-stakes medical policy, in which compassion for the child points in both directions, is not something that federal judges should do for life,” the sixth ruling said. circuit.
Urging the Supreme Court to take up the case, the Biden administration said state bans “cause profound harm to transgender adolescents and their families by denying medical treatments that affected adolescents, their parents and their doctors have all concluded they are appropriate and necessary for the treatment of a serious condition. Medical condition”.
The law was one of several measures Republicans pursued at the state level to restrict LGBTQ+ rights. Such measures also include a ban on discussion of gender identity in schools, stricter measures against drag shows and blocking the participation of transgender people in sports.
The Supreme Court has heard several cases involving LGBTQ+ rights over the past decade. In 2015, the country legalized same-sex marriage. In 2020, it ruled that a landmark federal law banning workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender workers.
But in 2018, judges ruled in favor of a Denver baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple based on his Christian views. In 2023, they ruled in a Colorado case that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain businesses to refuse services for same-sex weddings.
Reuters contributed report