Supreme Court Lets Tennessee Hurt Trans Children
Hey remember when Neal Gorsuch wrote an opinion barring trans discrimination? Neither does he.
Well, the fucking Supreme Court done did it again. A certain six justices have been doing their own research at Martha-Ann Alito’s vergogna book club, and have ruled in United States vs. Skrmetti that Tennessee can outlaw gender-affirming care for minors.
The gender-affirming care minors have been getting just fine up until now is evidence-based, and the ruling means that more than 100,000 trans youth in the 25 states with gender-affirming care bans will lose access to treatments that doctors and the kids’ parents have decided is medically necessary. And Tennessee’s law encompasses not just gender-affirming surgery for minors, which is nearly nonexistent anywhere but in MAGA’s fertile imagination, but extends all the way to anything medical that lets them change identity inconsistent with the minor's sex. So much for parents’ rights!
The fucking SCOTUS Six also just accepted the lies in Tennessee’s law as fact, like that doctors are doing things that are making children “irreversibly sterile, having increased risk of disease and illness, or suffering from adverse and sometimes fatal psychological consequences” and that gender-affirming treatments “are experimental in nature and not supported by high-quality, long-term medical studies.” Every single major medical association recommends gender-affirming treatments because evidence shows the opposite, that gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria is safe and effective, and reduces suicide risk. Witnesses in the case said that the care saved their lives. But this is the post-factual SCOTUS! Evidence and court, those two things don’t go together any more.
Tennessee child abuse laws also say it is not neglect if the parents pray instead of taking a sick child to the doctor. Evidence is not their thing. Tennessee is not getting over its image of being overrun by jug-hooting yokels who think diabetes is a curse from the Hill Witch.
The administration, being the extra fascist assholes that they are, also seized the moment to close the LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline in 30 days. They hate Pride Month and want everybody to know it!
The Court had decided just five years ago in Bostock v. Clayton County that discrimination against transgender people violated the Equal Protection Clause, a decision penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch his very own self. But the balance has changed, and SCOTUS last month even allowed Pete Hegseth’s hateful military trans ban to happen, though it had been mocked and tossed out of every lower court for being nothing but a hateful and insulting rant, devoid of any evidence.
Pentagon Decrees Trans Military Members Out Themselves And Leave ‘Voluntarily,' Or Get Witch-Hunted
How did SCOTUS square this logical circle? With some truly amazing logic to erase trans children, of course.
You see, it would be unlawful sex discrimination if a girl was not allowed to do what a boy was allowed to do. But if you swapped the boy’s and the girl’s places, then the girl would already be a girl, and therefore not in need of care to affirm her gender, because she’s already a girl.
If a transgender boy seeks testosterone to treat gender dysphoria, SB1 prevents a healthcare provider from administering it to him. If his biological sex were changed from female to male, SB1 would still not permit him the hormones he seeks because he would lack a qualifying diagnosis. The transgender boy could receive testosterone only if he had a permissible diagnosis (like a congenital defect). And, if he had such a diagnosis, he could obtain the testosterone regardless of his sex or transgender status. Under the reasoning of Bostock, neither his sex nor his transgender status is the but-for cause of his inability to obtain testosterone.
What?
The fight for care now moves back to state courts, and at least care for minors will still be available in some states, for families able to relocate.
Trans people are not going anywhere, though, so go suck rocks, Martha-Ann. It is a kick in the stomach to equal protection. But thousands of people are working day and night against injustices such as these, too. If you want to get more involved in the fight for trans youth, The Trevor Project could sure use support now, or here is a list of 22 other organizations doing LGBTQ+ advocacy and support work.
One Nice Time, on Tuesday a federal judge granted class certification to transgender people seeking to update the gender marker on their passports, and her order took effect immediately, so transgender people should (should!) be able to begin submitting updated applications right away. A motion to stay that ruling could come at any time, so if you need to submit a passport update, now there is a window.
But all of this mostly fucking sucks, SCOTUS is horrible, and I’m sorry!
You know what I think?
From now on until this is overturned, every time a trans kid kills themself because they can’t get care, the family should bring the body to DC, drag it into Roberts’ office and dump the corpse of that child on his fucking desk for him to deal with.
CHILDREN ARE DYING BECAUSE OF BIGOTRY. IT IS 2025. ENOUGH PASSIVE ACCEPTANCE.
Mrs. Betty Bowers
@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social
“Ask your Supreme Court Justice which medical procedure is right for you.”
June 18, 2025 at 1:05 PM