{"id":194981,"date":"2025-06-18T17:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194981\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:39:17","slug":"what-us-supreme-courts-gender-ruling-means-for-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194981\/","title":{"rendered":"What US Supreme Court\u2019s gender ruling means for Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.\n<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a gender-affirming care ban for minors in Tennessee was constitutional, effectively green-lighting a similar law in Texas and about two dozen other states.<\/p>\n

The justices ruled 6-3<\/a> in Skrmetti v. United States that Tennessee\u2019s ban does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and does not constitute discrimination on the basis of transgender identity.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the case \u201ccarries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field.\u201d<\/p>\n

But having concluded that it does not meet the bar for higher scrutiny, he wrote, \u201cquestions regarding the law\u2019s policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the ruling \u201cabandons transgender children and their families to political whims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 law<\/a>, like the Tennessee statute the court considered, prohibits doctors from prescribing medical treatments, like hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to help a minor transition. These treatments are recommended by all major medical associations to treat gender dysphoria, a medical condition related to the distress someone can feel when the sex they were assigned at birth doesn\u2019t align with their gender identity.<\/p>\n

Since Texas\u2019 law went into effect, families<\/a> have left<\/a> the state rather than wean their children off of medical treatments that they say are life-saving. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has brought several lawsuits against doctors<\/a> he alleges<\/a> still<\/a> provide these treatments in violation of the law.<\/p>\n

Conservatives have argued these medical treatments are untested and pushed on children who are too young to realize the consequences, and contest the widespread support from what one lawyer for the state of Texas<\/a> called \u201cideologically captured\u201d medical associations. In Wednesday\u2019s ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas endorsed this view, saying \u201cthe experts appear to have compromised their credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Texas\u2019 law was challenged in state court on the grounds that it violated parents\u2019 rights to make medical decisions for their children. The state Supreme Court disagreed, ruling 8-1 <\/a>that right was not absolute in the face of \u201cnew and previously unconsidered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Tennessee case, lawyers for the U.S. government argued that the law amounted to sex discrimination because a child assigned male at birth could still get testosterone, for example, while a child assigned female could not. They also argued this was discrimination on the basis of transgender status, since minors could still get these same treatments for non-transition related care.<\/p>\n

Roberts disagreed on all fronts. The Tennessee law \u201cdivides minors into two groups: those seeking puberty blockers or hormones to treat the excluded diagnoses, and those seeking puberty blockers or hormones to treat other conditions,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhile the first group includes only transgender individuals, the second encompasses both transgender and nontransgender individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

LGBTQ groups condemned the ruling as failing to protect trans youth. Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said in a statement that the court ignored discrimination and its own precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare decisions belong with families, not politicians,\u201d he said. \u201cThis decision will cause real harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup!<\/strong> New additions include Margaret Spellings<\/strong>, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry<\/strong>, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O\u2019Rourke<\/strong>, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale<\/strong>, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang<\/strong>, journalist and trial lawyer.<\/p>\n


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