Transgender youth in Tennessee are once again at risk after several state laws granted, removed, reinstated, then once again removed their vital transitional care.
A U.S. appeals court ruled Saturday that a Tennessee law can go into effect immediately which prohibits doctors from providing medical care such as puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors.
A panel of three judges voted 2-1 to reverse a lower court’s decision that had blocked Tennessee from enforcing the law while it was being challenged.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that the advocacy groups which had challenged Tennessee’s law “couldn’t show” it violated the U.S. Constitution.
It’s now the first time a federal court has allowed a law specifically banning transitional care to fully take effect.
The law bans any medical procedure performed for the “purpose of enabling a minor to identify with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth,” as if that’s anyone else’s business.
I’d say that violates every American’s basic human rights to exist equally as stated in the Declaration of Independence, which I guess doesn’t matter as much as the Constitution.
But even as they wrote their decisions, the prevailing judges questioned whether they should have to do so in the first place.
Judge Helen White said she believed Tennessee’s law “is likely unconstitutional” as a type of sex discrimination.
“Life-tenured federal judges should be wary of removing a vexing and novel topic of medical debate from the ebbs and flows of democracy by construing a largely unamendable federal constitution to occupy the field,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote.
Sutton also wrote that the appeals court will try to reach a final decision about Tennessee’s law by September 30th
“These initial views, we must acknowledge, are just that: initial,” he wrote. “We may be wrong.”
Seriously, you think so? Why can’t anyone ever just mind their own parts?
Especially the government. When did it become okay for them to make any laws regarding a person’s private medical choices that don’t impact the health of the general population?
Such a decision will have an immediate impact on transgender youth who are already in mid-transition, say mental health experts.
GOP lawmakers claim the measure was “necessary to protect minors from being permanently harmed,” but the truth is way more harmful.
Repressed Republicans have chosen the transgender community as their latest boogeyman scapegoat. Meanwhile, real lives are at stake.
Anti-transgender legislation fueled by GOP conspiracies are being passed all across the country, fully ignorant of the real ramification of their anti-trans actions.
Medical associations and mental healthcare advocates have repeatedly said gender-affirming care can be life-saving.
To halt a person in mid-transition is to set them back both physically as well as emotionally.
You’d think the GOP would be a little more opportunistic instead of transphobic.
They could be tapping into that sweet sweet pharmaceutical company money while letting other people just live.
But nah, they have to ostracize and “Other” anyone who makes them have weird feelings.
Until everyone learns now to MYOB, there’s Twitter to help out with that.
An appeals court panel — after midnight — has lifted an injunction against a Tennessee law barring gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
The panel ruled that the district court order went too far. But they acknowledge they may have it wrong too. https://t.co/KXYhSwDVIF pic.twitter.com/9ixZStSiO8
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 8, 2023
UPDATE: In Tennessee, the court granted DOJ’s intervention in the litigation challenging S.B. 1. Additionally, the court found that DOJ can challenge the law with both sex and transgender status-based allegations under the Equal Protection Clause. https://t.co/83fwFqxNEN pic.twitter.com/qxnjlUUQxN
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) May 18, 2023
Rep. @Justinjpearson gives Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) a lesson on the constitution as he rips his latest anti-trans youth bill — again focusing on athletes, which has not been an issue in Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/g6Md2C8xb7
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 19, 2023
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