The United States Supreme Court will take up a hearing on a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The case is set to be heard this fall.
The law puts doctors at risk of losing their license for providing gender-affirming care to minors, like hormone therapy, and — in rare instances — surgery. It also provides a path for parents to sue if the care happened without their consent and for people who received gender-affirming care as minors to sue their medical providers as adults. Even if the family involved is satisfied with their child’s care, the state attorney general can sue a provider.
ACLU looks to sue as legislation makes parents of trans children question their future in state
During the 2023 legislative session, restricting care for transgender youth was a top priority for some legislators — it was the first bill introduced for the session. House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 were signed into law in March 2023 and were set to go into effect in July of that year.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, national advocacy groups and a Nashville family filed a lawsuit challenging the law in April 2023. The U.S. Department of Justice stepped in one week later in an attempt to block the law from going into effect, citing the 14th Amendment’s equal protections clause by “discriminating on the basis of both sex and transgender status,” the department said in a press release.
Nashville family is challenging new state law
"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," said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee. "The court has the power to protect trans youth’s right to access the health care they need by striking down this discriminatory law.”
In July, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a temporary partial block, which would allow the ban on surgical procedures but not hormone therapy, permitting the law to go into effect. The court doubled down in August. At the time, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the ruling "a big win for democracy." Skrmetti also targeted transgender patient records in a probe into VUMC in July, and two of the patients sued in a class-action lawsuit against the hospital for turning over the records.
Patient families confirm appointment, prescription cancellations due to Tennessee law
The Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at VUMC stopped serving patients on June 1, 2023. Some families with transgender children have moved out of the state due to a lack of access to care.
"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,” Skrmetti says in a Monday statement. “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.”
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
