NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Almost 20 states have signed up with California Attorney General Rob Bonta to file an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court that opposes Tennessee's law restricting access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
In a release from Sept. 3, Bonta said the amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that upheld the law and allowed it to take effect. In April 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union and families impacted by the law tried suing to stop it. However, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law in September 2023.
The law prohibits medical professionals from giving puberty blockers or hormone therapy to transgender minors as a treatment for gender dysphoria. However, the law allows those treatments to be used for cisgender minors facing separate diagnoses.
The amicus brief argues that the care is proven by medical associations to be safe and effective in treating gender dysphoria, and the coalition said the law constitutes discrimination by only barring access for transgender minors yet allowing cisgender minors to receive the treatments.
“In our ongoing efforts to ensure equal and uninterrupted medical care for everyone, I urge the Supreme Court to reverse the lower court’s ruling. Tennessee's discriminatory law only serves to further marginalize transgender individuals and put their lives at risk," Bonta said in a release.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would take up a case over Tennessee's law but is not expected to hear arguments until next fall. Amicus briefs are most frequently filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, as compared to other courts. They are effectively filed by entities who may not necessarily involved in a lawsuit but have a specific kind of authority over subject matter relevant to a case.
The 20-page brief urges the Supreme Court to reverse the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to let the law go into effect. It cites research warning that without access to care like puberty blockers or hormone treatments, transgender youth face a higher risk of suicide and severe mental illness.
"Many transgender individuals suffer from gender dysphoria, a medical 'condition where clinically significant distress results from the lack of congruence between a person’s gender identity and the sex they were designated at birth.' ... Left untreated, gender dysphoria can substantially affect quality of life, including by causing anxiety, depression, and substance-abuse problems," the brief said.
Other states that signed onto it include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington as well as the District of Columbia.
