This isn’t the ruling we had hoped for. Obviously.
Today the Supreme Court ruled that the Tennessee law banning youth gender care does not violate the right to equal protection. In short, the court majority ruled that banning youth gender care is not sex discrimination. Instead, the court ruled that states do have the ability to regulate medical care based on the age of the patient and the medical treatment desired. The court says that it is not discrimination on the basis of sex to allow cis youth access to treatments that are denied to trans youth. This ruling means that laws banning youth care are not subject to the same limitations and court intervention that laws that discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics (race, religion, etc.) are. (See our blog So, Skrmetti (SCOTUS Ruling Expected in June 2025) for background information.)
We disagree. Discrimination based on gender should be seen as a violation of our Constitutional rights, and should be held to a higher standard. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Brown Jackson agree.
We’ll be reading what the law experts say over the next few days so that we can more fully explain what happens next. We expect that this ruling will be used to further limit access to gender care in many states.
We provide gender care to youth and adults. For some youth, that may mean traveling to Washington, Oregon, or California, which all have shield laws in place to protect gender care. There are programs available to support both transportation and medical costs.
See Getting Care At QueerDoc: Appointments for more information.