NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The American Civil Liberties Union announced on April 20 that they were suing Tennessee. They said the lawsuit is meant to prevent a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors from going into effect.
They said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of three families and a Memphis-based medical doctor who provides gender-affirming care. Two of the families filed anonymously, and one in Nashville has a 15-year-old transgender daughter.
“It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed. We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving,” said Samantha Williams, the mother of that daughter. "I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her. We don’t want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether. No family should have to make this kind of choice."
SB 0001 was signed on March 2, which bans forms of gender-affirming care for minors. These forms of care — such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery — could be used to help adolescents with gender dysphoria.
"Decades of clinical experience and research have shown that gender-affirming health care is safe, effective, and improves the health and well-being of adolescents with gender dysphoria. Moreover, all of the treatments prohibited by the Health Care Ban are permitted when undertaken for any reason other than to affirm a gender identity that differs from a patient’s sex designated at birth," the lawsuit says. "If the Health Care Ban goes into effect, it will have devastating consequences for transgender youth and their families in Tennessee."
The lawsuit said that going through puberty can be extremely distressing for transgender adolescents, and in some cases, puberty-delaying medication can minimize the effects of gender dysphoria.
"The Health Care Ban is just one piece of a robust discriminatory legislative agenda targeting transgender persons," the lawsuit says.
According to the Endocrine Society Guideline, adolescents are only eligible for puberty-delaying treatment if a mental health professional confirms several aspects of a patient's health, including that the adolescent has a long-lasting pattern of gender dysphoria, it worsened with the onset of puberty and they have sufficient "mental capacity" to consent to the treatment.
Providers also need to follow similar guidelines when deciding if a transgender adolescent is eligible for gender-affirming hormone therapy.
The ACLU argued that transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria would not be able to get medical care, and said untreated gender dysphoria is associated with severe harm like anxiety, depression and suicidality.
"Being transgender is not itself a medical condition to be cured. But gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition that, if left untreated, can result in debilitating anxiety, severe depression, self-harm, and suicide," the lawsuit says.
Gender dysphoria is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It's the clinical diagnosis of distress resulting when a person's gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align.
"Some parents of transgender children are making plans to flee the State to protect their children’s health and safety and to obtain the medical treatment their children need. Those with the resources to do so will have to leave their jobs, businesses, extended families, and communities," it also says.
The lawsuit says that the ban violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection, violates the right to parental autonomy and is preempted by the Affordable Care Act.
It asks the court to issue injunctions against the law and stop it from going into effect.
According to the Williams Institute of USCLA, there are around 30,800 transgender people in Tennessee — and around 3,100 of them are between 13 years old and 17 years old.
The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General released a statement about the lawsuit, available below.
We have not yet been served with the lawsuit. We look forward to reviewing the complaint. Mounting evidence has persuaded a growing number of countries that irreversible medical interventions are not appropriate for kids showing symptoms of gender dysphoria. The Tennessee General Assembly passed a law to protect Tennessee children from the lifelong consequences of these interventions, and we will vigorously defend that law.