Tennessee Prohibition of gender affirming sponsorship for transgender youth It could go into effect after a federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily reversed a lower court’s ruling. The ruling is preliminary and remains in effect only until the Court of Appeals conducts a full review of the appeal.
Late last month, a District Court judge in Tennessee found that the state of Tennessee A new law bans transgender treatments Such as hormone blockers and surgeries for transgender youth were unconstitutional because they discriminate on the basis of sex. The judge prevented large parts of the law from taking effect.
But on Saturday, the 6th District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati granted an emergency appeal from the state of Tennessee. In a 2-1 ruling, the majority wrote that decisions about emerging policy issues such as transgender care are generally left to legislatures rather than judges. The law, which was due to take effect on July 1, could go into effect immediately.
Chief Justice Jeffrey Sutton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote: “Given the great stakes of these nascent political deliberations—the long-term health of children facing gender dysphoria—sound government typically benefits from more debate, not less.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrimetti praised the ruling, saying the ban can now be fully enforced. “The case is not over yet, but this is a huge victory,” he said in a statement.
On the other hand, gender affirmation welfare advocates condemned the ruling.
“This ruling is not disappointing and a heartbreaking development for thousands of transgender youth and their doctors and families,” Tennessee Civil Liberties Union, and other advocates and attorneys He said in a joint statement. “As we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all transgender youth in Tennessee to know that this fight is far from over and we will continue to challenge this law until it is permanently defeated and Tennessee is a safer place to raise every family.”
The American Civil Liberties Union said the Sixth Circuit is the first federal circuit to allow a ban on transgender health care for minors.
Judge Sutton wrote that the appeals process will be expedited, with the goal of resolving the case by September 30. Sutton acknowledged that other judges have issued different rulings.
“We appreciate their views, and they hold us back a little,” he wrote. “But they don’t remove our suspicions.”
The dissenting judge, Helen White, ruled that she believed the Tennessee law likely to be unconstitutional, but said she would not apply her ruling at the state level, as the district court has. She said she would have limited her ruling to applying only to the nine plaintiffs who brought the suit and to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where some of the plaintiffs have sought care.
“I don’t see how a state could justify denying access to hormonal therapies for gender dysphoria to minor plaintiffs while allowing access to others, especially in light of the district court’s strong factual findings about the benefits of such treatments for transgender youth,” White wrote.
The federal government has also made its own challenge to the Tennessee law. Tennessee is one of several states across the country that have had it lately Enact a ban on gender confirmation sponsorship for minors. Federal judges in Arkansas, Indiana and Kentucky also struck down bans imposed by those states.
The law prohibits health care providers in Tennessee from providing hormonal treatments or surgeries to transgender youth where the purpose is to allow the child to express a gender identity that “contradicts the established characteristics of the reproductive system that identify the minor as male or female.”
The Tennessee legislature then passed the law Vanderbilt University Medical Center She was accused of opening her own transgender health clinic because it was profitable. Videos have surfaced of a doctor there narrating that gender confirmation procedures are a “big money maker”. Another video showed an employee saying that anyone with a religious objection should quit.
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