Summary
Chase Strangio will become the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing families challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors.
Tennessee defends the law as protecting children from premature medical decisions, while Strangio argues the ban denies critical care endorsed by major medical groups.
The case comes amid growing restrictions on transgender rights nationwide.
Strangio, an ACLU lawyer, emphasizes the harm of denying necessary treatments, drawing from personal experience.
A decision is expected by summer, with potential policy shifts under the next administration.
The thing is, this care helps kids with gender dysphoria to get through their teenage years and make it to adulthood. It can’t simply be postponed until later without serious impact on the well being of the kid. We are talking about things like puberty blockers here, not surgeries:
Gender dysphoria is by all accounts a deeply troubling experience during teenage years, particularly if your body is growing in a direction that makes you ever more uncomfortable. Puberty blockers can help:
You can’t do this once you’re already an adult, and there are physical changes you might be deeply uncomfortable with that can be locked in by puberty and will now require more radical interventions as an adult. I know trans adults who really struggle with the feeling that they should have started medical treatments sooner, before puberty brought changes to their bodies.
These treatments aren’t prescribed lightly either, contrary to what some right-wing voices would have you imagine. From the same Mayo Clinic page: