Activists for transgender rights gather in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2023.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The Department of Justice is suing Tennessee for allegedly discriminating against transgender youth with a recent state law banning the usage of puberty blockers, hormones, and other medical procedures that affirm a toddler’s gender identity.
The DOJ asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Wednesday to declare that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Structure and to ban state authorities from implementing the statute.
Tennessee’s law is ready to take effect July 1.
“No one ought to be denied access to needed medical care simply because of their transgender status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“The correct to think about your health and medically-approved treatment options along with your family and doctors is a right that everybody must have, including transgender children, who’re especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide.”
The lawsuit originally was filed April 20 by the parents of transgender children in Tennessee who’re undergoing gender-affirming care. The DOJ joined that motion.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado must reply to the suit by May 8.
DOJ attorneys said in a court filing that the law clearly targets transgender minors by banning medical procedures to treat gender dysphoria, while allowing the identical treatments for conditions reminiscent of congenital defects, physical injury and delayed or early puberty in children who discover with their biological sex.
Under Tennessee’s law, a health care provider could prescribe testosterone to treat delayed puberty in boys who discover with their biological sex but would prohibit the identical treatment to affirm the gender identity of transgender boys, the federal government’s lawyers said.
“The law thus discriminates against transgender minors by unjustifiably denying them access to certain types of medically needed care to treat a diagnosis of gender dysphoria,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing.
“All people, including transgender youth, should be treated with dignity and respect,” the federal government said.
The law forces doctors to make a choice from withholding needed medical look after transgender kids or facing a $25,000 penalty from the state, in keeping with the Justice Department.
Seventeen Republican-led states have laws that ban gender-affirming look after transgender children, in keeping with the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ rights.
Those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Courts have blocked the laws in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.
Nearly 30% of transgender children live in states which have banned gender-affirming care, in keeping with the Human Rights Campaign.
Greater than 300,000 high-school-age kids are transgender and might have gender-affirming care, in keeping with the organization.
The DOJ’s intervention within the Tennessee case is the most recent effort by the federal government to implement transgender rights under the 14th Amendment to the Structure, which comprises the equal-protection clause.
The Biden administration last yr sent a letter to state attorneys general underscoring federal protections for transgender youth.
In April 2022, the DOJ intervened in a case difficult an Alabama law banning gender-affirming care. A court blocked that law from going into effect.
