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US Supreme Court to Consider Tennessee's Ban on Care for Trans Youth
"It's crucial to recognize that for trans youth and their families, this isn't about politics—it's about the fundamental freedom to access vital, lifesaving healthcare," said one advocate.
Jun 24, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to Tennessee's March 2023 ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth—a development that LGBTQ+ rights advocates sought but which has them worried given the six right-wing justices.
The Biden administration along with the national and state ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP asked the justices to review the Tennessee ban after a September decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed it to stay in effect.
The justices granted certiorari in seven cases for the term beginning this fall, including United States v. Skrmetti, the administration's challenge to the Tennessee ban. Law Dork's Chris Geidner noted that they rejected local challenges to that law and a similar one in Kentucky, "which also raised a parental rights due process claim."
"These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country."
Still, rights advocates cautiously welcomed the news and called on the justices to apply precedents including the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Countyruling that it is illegal for employers to discriminate against a worker because of transgender status and sexual orientation. That majority opinion was written by right-wing Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four left-leaning members of the court at that time. Now, there are just three liberal justices.
"This court has historically rejected efforts to uphold discriminatory laws, and without similar action here, these punitive, categorical bans on the provision of gender-affirming care will continue to wreak havoc on the lives of transgender youth and their families," Lambda Legal senior counsel Tara Borelli said Monday. "We are grateful that transgender youth and their families will have their day in the highest court, and we will not stop fighting to ensure access to this lifesaving, medically necessary care."
While 15 states plus Washington, D.C. have enacted shield laws protecting access to gender-affirming healthcare, over two dozen states have banned some or all of such care for trans youth, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Medical professionals and rights advocates across the country have warned that these bans endanger the lives of trans people.
"The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this court adhering to the facts, the Constitution, and its own modern precedent," said Chase Strangio, deputy director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, in a statement after the justices agreed to take the case.
"These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their constitutional right to equal protection under the law," Strangio continued. "They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms."
Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee, stressed that "Tennesseans deserve the freedom to live their lives as their authentic selves without government interference, yet every day this law remains in place, it inflicts further pain and injustice on trans youth and their families."
"As politicians continue to fuel divisions for their own political gain, it's crucial to recognize that for trans youth and their families, this isn't about politics—it's about the fundamental freedom to access vital, lifesaving healthcare," the attorney added.
For now, the Tennessee ban remains in effect—and since its passage last year, the Campaign for Southern Equality has supported families of transgender youth through the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project.
"This is a high-stakes moment for transgender youth and their families, and we're glad that trans youth and their families will have their day in court to make the case that the bans are unconstitutional, interfere with private medical decisions, and severely harm families," Allison Scott, the campaign's director of impact and innovation, said Monday. "Everyone who needs gender-affirming care should be able to access it affordably, and close to home, and our team will never stop working to make that happen."
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NC Gov. Vetoes 'Dangerous, Cruel, and Deeply Unpopular' Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills
While pushing state legislators to "do the right thing," said one campaigner, "we remain clear-eyed that families should take steps to prepare if anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is enacted."
Jul 05, 2023
LGBTQ+ rights advocates on Wednesday celebrated after Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a trio of discriminatory bills while also warning that Republican state legislators could ultimately force them through.
Cooper has vetoed dozens of bills, but thanks to Democrat-turned-Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham (112), the GOP has a three-fifths majority in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA), enabling lawmakers to override the governor.
"For campaign purposes only, Republicans are serving up a triple threat of political culture wars using government to invade the rights and responsibilities of parents and doctors, hurting vulnerable children, and damaging our state's reputation and economy like they did with the harmful bathroom bill," Cooper said in a statement confirming his three widely anticipated vetoes.
"We don't need politicians inflaming their political culture wars by making broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children that are already handled by a robust system that relies on parents, schools, and sports organizations," he said of House Bill 574, which would bar transgender youth from participating in althetic teams that align with their gender identity.
"This slate of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is unacceptable—and we're grateful that Gov. Cooper made the right choice by vetoing."
The governor also vetoed House Bill 808, which would ban gender-affirming care for minors. He asserted that "a doctor's office is no place for politicians, and North Carolina should continue to let parents and medical professionals make decisions about the best way to offer gender care for their children. Ordering doctors to stop following approved medical protocols sets a troubling precedent and is dangerous for vulnerable youth and their mental health."
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and at least hundreds of medical professionals across North Carolina support gender-affirming care for minors.
Cooper's third target, Senate Bill 49, is a "Don't Say Gay" measure that he argued would "scare teachers into silence by injecting fear and uncertainty into classrooms," and hamper "the important and sometimes lifesaving role of educators as trusted advisers when students have nowhere else to turn."
"The rights of parents are well established in state law," Cooper said, "so instead of burdening schools with their political culture wars, legislators should help them with better teacher pay and more investments in students."
Kendra R. Johnson, executive director of Equality North Carolina, said that "this slate of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is unacceptable—and we're grateful that Gov. Cooper made the right choice by vetoing. Now we implore the NCGA to do the right thing and recognize that this entire package of bills is dangerous, cruel, and deeply unpopular."
"These bills would tarnish North Carolina's reputation as an inclusive and welcoming place to live, work, and visit—and they would cause immense damage to transgender and queer youth, who already experience significant disparities," Johnson continued. "Anti-LGBTQ+ attacks have no place in North Carolina and the vetoes must be sustained."
Campaign for Southern Equality executive director Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara emphasized that "even as we will advocate tirelessly for the NCGA to do the right thing by sustaining Gov. Cooper’s veto, we remain clear-eyed that families should take steps to prepare if anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is enacted.
"Our team is at the ready to support families through our Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project to ensure that North Carolina youth have uninterrupted access to the healthcare they need and deserve," Beach-Ferrara added. "Each of these bills is flatly discriminatory and we are confident they will ultimately be struck down. We want LGBTQ+ youth across the state to know we are with them every step of the way and will never stop fighting for their equality."
North Carolina is far from the only state where the LGBTQ+ community—particularly young people—is facing such attacks.
Noting the hundreds of bills that GOP state lawmakers are pushing across the country, Liz Barber, senior policy counsel at the ACLU of North Carolina, said Wednesday that "legislators are using their power to bully an already vulnerable community, and Gov. Cooper has taken an important step by vetoing these bills."
"Trans youth deserve to have the same rights as their cisgender peers," Barber declared, stressing the need to continue to stand up for them.
According to the ACLU's tracker, during this year's legislative session, 77 of 491 anti-LGBTQ+ proposals have passed into law in 21 states, while 202 bills have been defeated, for now.
Such bills are expected to continue to come up in the 2024 Republican presidential primary race, given the positions of former President Donald Trump and GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. While there are several other candidates already in the contest, Trump continues to dominate polls, followed at a distance by DeSantis.
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450+ North Carolina Medical Professionals 'Adamantly Oppose' Ban on Gender-Affirming Care
"Any legislation restricting or banning lifesaving care... will be detrimental to the health of transgender and gender-diverse North Carolinians."
May 01, 2023
More than 450 North Carolina healthcare professionals in recent days have signed an open letter condemning a proposed state ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, legislation the signatories decried as a "dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine."
"As North Carolina healthcare professionals deeply committed to protecting our patients and preserving the trusting and informed relationship between patient and provider, we adamantly oppose any bans or restrictions on access to and provision of lifesaving, gender-affirming care," the doctors, nurses, therapists, and other medical professionals wrote in the letter to state lawmakers.
Among the anti-LGBTQ+ bills recently introduced in North Carolina's Republican-led Legislature is the so-called Youth Health Protection Act, which if passed will ban doctors from providing hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and other gender-affirming care. Violators would lose their medical licenses and be fined $1,000.
\u201cIn the past week, 450+ medical and mental health providers in NC signed a letter opposing legislative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, including bans on gender-affirming care. Read more with @southernequality here:\nhttps://t.co/f01kVeEJWQ #ncpol #LGBTQ\u201d— Equality NC (@Equality NC) 1682975737
The letter continues:
Any legislation restricting or banning lifesaving care represents dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine and will be detrimental to the health of transgender and gender-diverse North Carolinians, including youth. The decision of whether and when to seek gender-affirming care, which can include mental and physical health interventions, is personal and involves careful consideration by each patient and their family, along with guidance from their medical providers. These decisions should not be made by politicians or the government. This extreme intrusion will not only disrupt the patient-provider relationship, but will discourage talented healthcare providers from staying and providing all manner of healthcare within North Carolina.
"We applaud healthcare providers for taking a stand for trans youth and the LGBTQ+ community. Their voices are a powerful force against the hateful attacks on trans kids," Kendra Johnson, executive director at the advocacy group Equality NC, said in a statement praising the letter. "Legislators need to stay out of our private lives and let healthcare providers do their jobs."
\u201cWe have ANOTHER bad bill up in committee \u2013 HB 808, which bans gender-affirming care for young people in NC.\n\nThe bill will be in the House Healthcare committee tomorrow at 10:00 AM \u2013 come out and let lawmakers know what you think. \n\nSign up here: https://t.co/8v27XihNSG\u201d— Equality NC (@Equality NC) 1682955758
Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, said that "we're grateful to see this overwhelming chorus of medical providers calling this legislation out for what it is—extreme overreach of government into private citizens' medical care, with no concern for facts or medical best practices."
"North Carolina's leading medical experts are demanding that lawmakers listen to their concerns, and accepted medical best practices, before rushing through this dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ agenda," Scott added.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics are among the many medical groups supporting gender-affirming care for minors. A study published last year by the University of Washington found that youth who received such healthcare were 73% less likely to experience suicidality and 60% less likely to suffer from depression than minors who did not get care.
Yet GOP-led state legislatures in 2023 have already introduced more than 100 bills aimed at banning or severely limiting gender-affirming healthcare for minors, according to the ACLU, and more than a dozen states have passed laws outlawing such care.
\u201c"These bills communicate to everyone that it\u2019s okay to treat members of the LGBTQ+ community differently. It\u2019s okay to discriminate, even against a child". The parents story is compelling and ads validity to this ongoing onslaught of anti-trans-youth as well as adults.\u201d— DAILY Underground News 2 Review (@DAILY Underground News 2 Review) 1682454866
"Each time our legislators propose laws targeting our LGBTQ+ community, they hurt our family and thousands of other families," Sarah Eyssen, a North Carolina mother of a transgender daughter, wrote in a recent Charlotte Observer opinion piece. "These bills communicate to everyone that it's okay to treat members of the LGBTQ+ community differently. It's okay to discriminate, even against a child."
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