Disgusting but not surprising:
A Tennessee state law banning gender-affirming care for minors can stand, the US supreme court has ruled, a devastating loss for trans rights supporters in a case that could set a precedent for dozens of other lawsuits involving the rights of transgender children.
The case, United States v Skrmetti, was filed last year by three families of trans children and a provider of gender-affirming care. In oral arguments, the plaintiffs – as well as the US government, then helmed by Joe Biden – argued that Tennessee’s law constituted sex-based discrimination and thus violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Under Tennessee’s law, someone assigned female at birth could not be prescribed testosterone, but someone assigned male at birth could receive those drugs.
Tennessee, meanwhile, has argued that the ban is necessary to protect children from what it termed “experimental” medical treatment. During arguments, the conservative justices seemed sympathetic to that concern, although every major medical and mental health organization in the US has found that gender-affirming care can be evidence-based and medically necessary. These groups also oppose political bans on such care.
There’s a lot of smart politics here from the supposed dummies who run the opposition. Hating trans people has been an excellent issue for them, and they’ve been very clever at picking the little wedge micro-issues that elicit a strong visceral reaction from people who are already inclined to hate LGBTQ+ folks. First it was sports, with the notion that 6’4” heavily muscled trans women are going to keep your daughter from getting that basketball scholarship. Now it’s the idea that horrible liberals are going to force their children to take hormones, and probably yours, too.
I don’t really have a clever political solution for this. It’s politically difficult to support a tiny minority when a well-financed ruling party chooses to make that minority a scapegoat. Anti-trans bigotry is deep and wide in this country, with supposedly “liberal” media outlets leading the charge against advances for trans people. As usual, the right wing, politically, is miles ahead of us in their project to control the sexual expression of everyone in the nation. Unfortunately, people will die (from suicide) because of this, just as women are dying because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion.
Update: This is how it’s done.
