The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments related to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth on Dec. 4.
That day, Chase Strangio is set to become the first transgender lawyer to argue before the nation's highest court, according to a press release. Time magazine recognized Strangio in its 2020 100 Most Influential People list.
State law has faced legal challenges since it passed in 2023
The New York-based lawyer serves as co-director for transgender justice with the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project and will be arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs, including Samantha Williams and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 15-year-old transgender daughter, two other families filing anonymously and Dr. Susan Lacy of Memphis. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, New York City-based advocacy law group Lambda Legal and Washington, D.C.-based law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP filed the suit in April 2023.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced earlier this year that it would take up a hearing on the 2023 law, under which gender-affirming care including hormone therapy and the uncommon gender-affirmation surgery for patients younger than 18 are banned. The law is currently partially in effect, following legal back-and-forth.
“The stakes could not be higher for our communities as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti and L.W. v. Skrmetti,” Lambda legal chief legal officer Jennifer Pizer says in a press release. “As hostile state leaders prepare to double-down on their cruel, unprecedented and discriminatory attacks on transgender youth, the Court has the opportunity and duty to apply the law fairly, which means returning medical decisions to where they rightfully belong, to parents, their children, and their doctors.”
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 Tennessee 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 Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at VUMC stopped serving patients as well.
Following the April 2023 lawsuit, 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. 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, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the ruling "a big win for democracy."
In a statement submitted to the Supreme Court earlier this month, Skrmetti wrote: “The federal government, in its arguments to the Supreme Court, puts its faith in a false and manufactured consensus that ignores the many doctors, States, and countries who have looked at the evidence and determined these treatments are too risky for kids. The Constitution does not prevent the States from regulating the practice of medicine where hot-button social issues are concerned. People who disagree with restrictions on irreversible pediatric procedures for gender transition are free to advocate for change through state elections.”
This article was first published via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
