In a 6–3 decision in United States against SkmettiThe judges discovered that the Tennessee law is not unconstitutional. The central question of the case was whether the prohibition of Tennessee violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, which states that the government cannot discriminate people based on their breed, gender or other characteristics. The sentence does not affect the states in which the assistance that claims to be for young people remains legal, but establishes the previous one that states can prohibit this type of treatment.
The case was brought to court by three transgender teenagers and their parents, as well as a doctor, with the Department of Justice of the Biden Administration that joins the complaints. They argued that the Tennessee law discriminates on based on sex status and gender by denying medical care to young transgender available for other minors. This is the first case that the Supreme Court has addressed the issue of care that affirm the genre for minors.
The assistance that affirms the genre includes a variety of medical services intended to help align the body of a person more closely with their own gender identity. It can include hormonal therapy, puberty blockers and surgery.
Tennessee has issued its law in 2023, which forbids healthcare professionals to prescribe drugs or to offer surgical procedures that affirm the genre to minors whose gender identities are different from the sex assigned to birth. The law excludes the procedures that face congenital defects or physical injuries, as well as the medical assistance that affirms the genre for minors whose gender identity complies with their sex designated at birth. For example, it means that a cisgender boy with gynecomastia, a hormonal condition that causes enlarged male breast tissue, could receive drugs or undergo surgery to remove the breast tissue to conform to their gender identity, but a transgender individual has not been able to receive the same treatment for gender dysmorphy.
Today Sentence of the Supreme CourtDelivered by the supreme judge John Roberts, he claims that the Tennessee law is not discriminatory because “it prohibits the administrative health workers of blocking or puberty hormones to any minor to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder or gender inconsistency, regardless of minor sex.” According to the judges, the Tennessee law does not exclude any individual from medical treatments based on their transgender state. “Rather, it removes a series of diagnosis – Dysphoria of the Gener, gender identity disorder and gender inconsistency – from the range of cureable conditions,” says the sentence.
Since 2021, more than two dozens of states have adopted laws or policies that prohibit or seriously limit the assistance that claims to affirm the genre for people under the age of 18. Many of these states also penalize health care professionals for providing or offering this type of assistance to minors. According to the KFF non -profit health policy40 percent of young trans aged trans aged between 13 and 17 lives in a state that has issued a policy against assistance that affirms the genre.
Although several states were facing legal challenges for their prohibitions, today’s decision of the Supreme Court means that these laws will probably remain intact.
The main medical organizations to which the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the American College of Obstricians and Gynecologists and the World Health-Suporto Organization of access to care that affirm the genre for transgender and gender youth, which according to them is supported by scientific evidence. A Study since 2022 I interviewed almost 12,000 young transgender and non -tracks aged between 13 and 24 years old and discovered that those who received hormonal therapy that affirm that they affirm the genre had lower rates of depression, thoughts of suicide and attempted suicide than those who had not received hormonal therapy.
“Today’s decision of the Supreme Court is a devastating blow for young transgender and families who love them,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the human rights campaign, an organization that promotes civil rights LGBTQ+, in a note. “Families could now have to make the heartbreaking choice to leave their own state or divide their families or take large financial charges, in order to ensure that their children can access the necessary care from a medical point of view”.
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