WASHINGTON (AP) — Transgender rights advocates are turning to a conservative-dominated Supreme Court after Donald Trump and his presidential election allies vowed to roll back protections for transgender people.
The justices on Wednesday will consider the issue of gender-affirming care for transgender minors, which has been banned in Tennessee and 25 other Republican-led states.
The dispute over whether transgender youth have access to puberty blockers and hormone treatments is part of a broader effort to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can compete in and which bathrooms they can exploit.
Trump supported a nationwide ban on this care as part of his 2024 campaign, in which he demeaned and mocked transgender people.
In its final days, the Biden administration will join the families of transgender youth in appealing to judges to strike down the Tennessee ban as unlawful sex discrimination and protect the constitutional rights of vulnerable Americans.
“There’s a lot at stake for transgender youth, of course, but also for the parents who are watching their children suffer, who are just trying to please their children,” said Chase Strangio, who represents the families on the Supreme Court in an interview. Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, will be the first openly transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court.
A Tennessee lawyer will argue that “life-changing gender reassignment procedures” are risky and unproven and that it is the state’s job to protect children.
Trump nominated three justices in his first term that pushed the court in a more conservative direction, including the 2022 decision that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which had protected abortion rights for nearly 50 years.
But one of Trump’s appointees, Judge Neil Gorsuch, also wrote a ruling in 2020 that protected LGBTQ people from employment discrimination under federal civil rights law.
Both the government and transgender families are relying on this decision to support their arguments.
After Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, it is possible that the fresh administration will comment on the case, which is not expected to be decided until the spring.
There are about 300,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17 and 1.3 million adults who identify as transgender in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. The Williams Institute is a think tank that researches sexual orientation and gender identity demographics to inform law and policy decisions.
Most Republican-controlled states have enacted a ban similar to Tennessee, and those laws have largely remained in effect despite legal challenges. The Tennessee case marks the first time the nation’s highest court will examine the constitutionality of the bans.
Sivan Kotler-Berkowitz, a 20-year-old transgender student from Massachusetts, said his life would have been very different if he were just a few years younger and living in one of the states.
“These bans deprive people of the opportunity to live and excel,” he said in an interview. “There are thousands of transgender youth across the country who are doing as well as I am because we have the love and understanding of our families and because we have access to appropriate care.”
The bans in Tennessee and elsewhere have left families in the position of deciding whether to travel for ongoing health care, forgo it or wait until their children turn 18.
Erin Friday, a leader of Our Duty, an international group that supports bans on gender-specific care of minors, said the case will be as critical as Roe v. Wade. She said upholding the Tennessee law would strengthen the case for laws restricting sports participation and restroom exploit.
Among the arguments made by supporters of state laws is that many children who initially say they are transgender eventually change their minds. Freitag said her daughter was 11 years ancient when she said she was transgender, which Freitag attributed to the child being “indoctrinated” at school. But after psychiatric treatment, her daughter changed her mind, Friday said. If laws like Tennessee’s were overturned, “even more children would suffer irreversible harm and live lives filled with deep regret,” a Supreme Court filing said Friday.
Guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, revised in 2022, say there is little evidence of regretting transitioning but also that patients should be informed of the possibility as part of psychological counseling.
Some doctors who work with transgender minors said there should be no state between doctors, their patients and parents. “From a medical perspective, I think it’s really scary and dangerous to think that lawmakers could pass a law that basically judges or controls what people can do with a drug based on a diagnosis,” Dr. Susan Lacy of Memphis, Tennessee, who joined the families suing the state, said in an interview.
Michelle Quist Ryder, CEO of the American Psychological Foundation, said the laws, if left in effect, would be harmful to the physical and mental health of transgender people and their supporters. Gender dysphoria – a person’s discomfort when their assigned gender and gender identity do not match – has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
“The more we weaken the sense of safety in this community, the more trans youth will pay attention and ask, ‘Who else is going to come after me?'” she said.
Prominent names appear in some of the 83 briefs filed on both sides of the case, an unusually high number. Actors Elliot Page and Nicole Maines, as well as Sarah McBride of Delaware, who became the first openly transgender person to win congressional election in November, have joined more than five dozen people in calling on the court to overturn Tennessee’s law.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and Olympic swimming gold medalists Donna de Varona and Summer Sanders are among 135 athletes, coaches, officials and parents who want judges to uphold the ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. AP Medical Reporter Carla K. Johnson in Seattle and Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this article.
