The U.S. Supreme Court has granted an emergency stay request in Poe v. Labrador siding with Idaho’s ultraconservative legislature & allowing the state’s ban on transgender medical care for minors to go into effect for the first time since the case began more than 2 years ago. Although the stay will remain until litigation is resolved it doesn’t apply to the families who brought the lawsuit since their children are in the process of receiving transgender medical care. Cait Smith, Director of LGBTQ Policy at the Center for American Progress stated, “Idaho’s ban on transgender medical care is one of the most extreme in the country because it includes felony charges for medical providers. By siding with the state, the justices told transgender youth in Idaho & beyond that waging a culture war is more important than their health & that decades of research into gender-affirming care does not matter. Transgender medical care is necessary & lifesaving. Transgender youth, like everyone else, deserve access to the care they need. A 2022 study found that transgender youth ages 13–20 who were able to access care saw 60 percent lower odds of moderate to severe depression & 73 percent lower odds of self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Doctors & families together should decide the medical needs of patients, not activist judges.” For almost 4 years now we have heard President Biden state that he has our transgender kids backs but little has been done to secure our LGBTQ kids from discrimination. So far in 2024 we’re dealing with more than 470 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures nationwide mostly targeting our transgender youth.
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