By Aneri Upadhyay
Staff Writer
Tennessee and Kentucky are facing legal disputes as they ban transgender care for minors.
Their decision was reinforced by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel according to AP News. It was 2-1, with the support of Republican representatives from both Tennessee and Kentucky.
The decision was made after lawmakers made “precise cost-benefit decisions” and “did not trigger any reason for judges to second-guess them.” Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton weighed in on the right to make that decision.
“Prohibiting citizens and legislatures from offering their perspectives on high-stakes medical policies, in which compassion for the child points in both directions, is not something life-tenured federal judges should do without a clear warrant in the Constitution,” Sutton wrote.
As reported by Reuters, some of the care included in the ban are puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgery.
Disagreeing with the decision, Judge Helene White stated that Tennessee and Kentucky laws "cannot pass constitutional muster" and "intrude on the well-established province of parents to make medical decisions for their minor children."
Lawyers for the families who fought against the ruling stated that the decision was a "devastating result for transgender youth and their families" and claimed to be looking at the next steps to support the rights of transgender youth.
This ruling is even more upsetting for these lawyers after many states this summer fought to block the limit of transgender care, as stated in the New York Times. These states included Indiana, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Civil rights lawyers won in Missouri state court and federal courts in Arkansas and Alabama. According to the ACLU, the federal judge in Arkansas ruled that banning gender-affirming care was prohibited and went against the First Amendment, along with the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clauses.
Adversaries of the ban claim that it goes against the 14th amendment, which promises due process and equal protection. The 14th amendment has been stated in similar cases dealing with the protection of an individual, such as desegregating schools, interracial marriage and a right to abort as stated in the New York Times.
Republican attorneys general have argued that minors can not consent to treatments that cause long-term consequences, like infertility, because they lack maturity.
Although Tennessee and Kentucky have a temporary ban and an appeal is likely, the right for transgender youth to receive universal health care in the future is unknown.
Gender-affirming care is a protected right in New Jersey. In April, Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order declaring the state a “safe haven” for transgender and non-binary individuals.
