SCOTUS Should Let Tennessee Protect Kids From ‘Transing’
Written by on December 9, 2024
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A lawsuit originating in the state of Tennessee is providing the Supreme Court of the United States a golden opportunity to protect children and teens against so-called “gender-affirming care” and to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court of the United States recently heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti. This case is a legal challenge to Tennessee’s Do No Harm Law, which was signed by Gov. Bill Lee in March 2023. Do No Harm Laws ban the use of “gender-affirming care”—typically including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and so-called “gender reassignment surgery—on minor patients as treatments for gender dysphoria. Approximately 24 states have passed Do No Harm Laws. The purpose of these laws is to protect impressionable minors against the consequences of “gender-affirming care,” which can include “impairment in bone strength and brain maturation,” “loss of fertility,” and profound regret. In recent years, some men and women have spoken out about their unhappiness with the “gender-affirming care” they received during their younger years.[1]
Three teenagers with gender dysphoria, along with their parents, have sued the state of Tennessee. The U.S. Department of Justice joined in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs, along with the federal government, contend that Tennessee’s Do No Harm Law discriminates against young patients on the basis of sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They argue that the law discriminates against such young people by barring them from accessing certain treatments when the very same treatments remain available for youths of the opposite sex who do not suffer from gender dysphoria.[2]
After a federal district court blocked the enforcement of the Do No Harm Law and a federal appellate court reversed that decision, the case made its way to the Supreme Court. The Court heard oral arguments on December 4, 2024. The plaintiffs were represented by attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the first openly “transgender” individual to argue a case before the nation’s highest court.
No one can predict with any certainty how the Supreme Court will decide any given case based on the oral arguments. Nevertheless, the Associated Press and other media outlets have reported that most of the justices seemed sympathetic to the arguments in favor of the Do No Harm Law. Chief Justice John Roberts—a frequent swing vote—asked whether the Court should refrain from second-guessing policies set at the state level about how medical procedures should be regulated. On the other hand, Justice Neil Gorsuch—a justice who is typically conservative, but who wrote a damaging pro-LGBT majority opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020)—said nothing at all during the arguments. The three liberal justices—Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—appeared supportive of the plaintiffs’ position. Oddly, Justice Jackson compared the arguments made in support of the Do No Harm Law to arguments made before the Supreme Court in the 1960s in support of bans on interracial marriage.
The Supreme Court should uphold Tennessee’s Do No Harm Law. The law does not subject anyone to unequal treatment. Rather, it protects all young people with gender dysphoria—regardless of sex—from undergoing unnecessary medical treatments than can have lifelong consequences. By upholding this law, the Court will stand against misuse of the Constitution by left-wing activists. It will also allow the state of Tennessee to properly protect against the “transing” of young people. A girl who wants to be a boy does not need puberty blockers or testosterone shots; she needs compassionate counseling to help her accept her body the way that God created it.
[1] One detransitioner, Chloe Cole, bravely testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2023 about her experience with “gender-affirming care.” Cole experienced gender dysphoria as a youth and underwent a double mastectomy at the age of 15. She now speaks out against such procedures.
[2] For example, if a teenaged boy is experiencing delayed puberty, a doctor might prescribe testosterone for him. The Do No Harm Law allows this, but does not allow testosterone to be prescribed as “gender-affirming care” to a teenaged girl with gender dysphoria.
The post SCOTUS Should Let Tennessee Protect Kids From ‘Transing’ appeared first on New York Families Foundation.
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