The first transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court—or, as the Feminist newsletter put it, the first to do so “openly”—will today say that doctors should be able to prescribe hormone therapy and puberty blockers to children.
Chase Strangio, who identifies as a transgender man, said, “It is not lost on me that I will be standing there at the lectern at the Supreme Court in part because I was able to have access to the medical care that is the very subject of the case that we’re litigating.”
Justices who will hear oral arguments in “the most high-profile dispute on the docket this session,” over Tennessee’s ban on so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors, have refused to consider a question on whether parents have a constitutional right to make medical decisions on behalf of their children.
Conservatives have, therefore, been looking further afield to defend their case—including, perhaps unexpectedly, to Europe.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wrote in defence of the state’s ban on some ‘medical treatments’ for children questioning their identity that
Systematic reviews by national health authorities in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway have all concluded that the harms associated with these interventions are significant, and the long-term benefits are unproven.
Official proceedings also note that “some of the same European countries that pioneered these treatments now express caution about them and have pulled back on their use.” In the UK, for example, puberty blocker prescriptions were banned for children earlier this year after a review found “there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness.”
A whistleblower from an American youth gender clinic is among those cited in an amicus brief presented to the Supreme Court in favour of Tennessee’s ban today. Whistleblowers have also, of course, been central to the UK’s about-turn, which is itself at risk of being flipped yet again.
Describing it as the “marquee case of the term,” The New York Times highlights this week that the Supreme Court’s decision will not just impact Tennessee but “more than 20 other states,” too. A ruling upholding the ban could also prompt other Western countries to follow suit.
The ruling is expected by June.
