The Supreme Court said Monday it will wade into the debate over whether states can ban gender assignment treatments for juveniles.
The Supreme Court said Monday it will wade into the debate over whether states can ban gender assignment treatments for juveniles.
The justices granted a petition to hear a case next term involving Tennessee’s law, which bans administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-transition surgeries to minors.
The case has become a major battleground, with the federal Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union on one side, fighting GOP-led states who say the country is rushing too fast to embrace unproven and potentially dangerous treatments for kids.
“It is undisputed that these hormonal and surgical interventions carry serious and potentially irreversible side effects, including infertility, diminished bone density, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and cancer,” Tennessee told the justices in briefs.
The state won in a federal appeals court and the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court.
U.S. Solicitor Elizabeth Prelogar said Tennessee’s law, SB1, discriminates against transgender children because it only restricts their care.
“Thus, for example, a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male can be prescribed testosterone to conform to a male gender identity, but a teenager assigned female at birth cannot,” Ms. Prelogar told the justices in asking them to hear the case.
The feds had joined the legal battle first launched by the ACLU and allied groups. The ACLU said the justices have the well-being of transgender youth in their hands.
