(Headline USA) The Supreme Court on Monday jumped into the fight over transition surgery for minors, agreeing to hear an appeal from the Biden administration seeking to prevent states from banning minors from participating in experimental gender-transition procedures and irreversible transitioning treatments without the consent of their parents.
The justices’ action comes as Republican-led states have enacted a variety of laws preventing minors from receiving transition surgery, protecting women’s leagues in sports, men from going in women’s bathrooms, and minors attending drag shows. The administration and Democratic-led states have fought to protect what they call ‘transgender rights’, including a new federal regulation that abolishes Title IX protections for women, as well as declaring Easter Sunday to be ‘Transgender Visibility Day’.
The case before the high court involves a law in Tennessee that restrict puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors. The federal appeals court in Cincinnati allowed laws in Tennessee and Kentucky to take effect after they had been blocked by lower courts. (The high court did not act on a separate appeal from Kentucky.)
“Without this Court’s prompt intervention, transgender youth and their families will remain in limbo, uncertain of whether and where they can access needed medical care,” lawyers for the transgender teens in Tennessee complained to the justices.
On the other side, supporters of the laws say that parental rights should be protected, and find it revolting of the Biden administration to try and strip parents of their right to protect their children from genital mutilation.
“It’s almost universal that parents have genuine love for their children far more than government loves their children. Tennessee simply recognizes this fact while the Biden administration, California, and a few other culturally motivated states feign their love for children while filling their pockets with cash from leftist organizations that seek to over-sexualize children,” stated Robert Tyler, President of Advocates for Faith and Freedom in a statement to Fox News.
Actor Elliot Page, the Oscar-nominated star of “Juno,” “Inception” and “The Umbrella Academy,” was among 57 transgender people who joined a legal filing in support of Supreme Court review.
Arguments will take place in the fall.
Last month, South Carolina became the 25th state to adopt a law restricting or banning transition surgery for minors.
Most of the state restrictions face lawsuits. The justices had previously allowed Idaho to generally enforce its restrictions, after they had been blocked by lower courts.
At least 24 states have laws barring biological men from competing in women’s or girls’ sports competitions. At least 11 states have adopted laws barring biological men from girls’ and women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.
The nation’s highest court has only rarely taken up transgender issues. In 2020, the justices ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.
In 2016, the court had agreed to take up the case of a biological female, backed by the Obama administration, who was barred from using the boys’ bathroom in his Virginia high school. But the court dropped the case after a directive advising schools to allow students to use the bathroom of their claimed gender, not biological birth, was scrapped in the early months of the Trump administration. The directive had been a key part of an appeals court ruling in favor of the student, Gavin Grimm.
In 2021, the justices declined to get involved in Grimm’s case after the appeals court again ruled in his favor. At the time, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas noted they would have taken up the school board’s appeal.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
