After oral arguments were heard before the Supreme Court in the case of United States v Skrmetti addressing transgender healthcare access LGBTQ civil rights groups provided the following statements. D Dangaran, co-chair of the National Trans Bar Association stated, "It was inspiring to hear Chase Strangio advocating for trans youth & all trans people, in this historic argument. Trans issues have been before the Court before, starting with Dee Farmer's prison rights case argued in 1994, but it is so significant that this major Equal Protection case, which may have long-lasting impacts on the access to gender-affirming care in this country, was argued in part by a trans attorney who has spent his life at the forefront of trans advocacy. No matter what the Court decides, today it heard an excellent argument from an excellent trans lawyer & that itself is a win for the entire trans community." Shannon Minter, Vice President of Legal at the National Center for Lesbian Rights concluded, “The plaintiffs today made a strong case that, on its face, this law discriminates by barring medications based solely on a person’s birth sex. The State of Tennessee had no effective response to that obvious fact, which several justices made clear Based on today’s argument, we are hopeful the Court will rule that Tennessee’s law discriminates based on sex & must therefore be subject to the same high standard of review applied to all other sex-based laws. That would be a huge victory & would provide clear guidance for the lower courts about how to evaluate these laws.” A decision will be reached in mid 2025.
For More Info….
I feel very hopeful after today’s argument. The Plaintiffs presented a powerful case explaining how these bans unfairly target transgender adolescents and deny them medications that all other adolescents can obtain when medically indicated. You don’t have to know about health care to know that these bans are not about medicine – they are about discrimination. They insert politicians between families and medical providers and block parents from getting their transgender children the health care that allows them to be healthy and thrive. The stigma and discrimination baked into these laws is intentional, clear, and devastating.
ReplyDelete