A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in favor of Kentucky and Tennessee laws blocking gender hormone interventions and transgender surgeries for children.
The Ohio-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Thursday to allow Kentucky and Tennessee to enforce their laws barring medical workers from administering children with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and various surgical procedures for changing their sex characteristics.
Kentucky and Tennessee are among a group of states that have sought to halt transgender medical interventions for children, but have faced legal challenges. The cases against the Kentucky and Tennessee laws were brought by parents of transgender-identifying children, and challenges were backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Lambda Legal, an organization that specializes in LGBT legal representation, also supported the plaintiffs, as did the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
In considering the case, Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton and Judge Amul Thapar sided with those who argued that the transgender medical treatments were either partially or entirely irreversible.
“This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two,” Judge Sutton, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote in the majority opinion. “Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments.”
The majority opinion removed preliminary injunctions that had stopped Kentucky and Tennessee from enforcing their laws. The decision also remanded the issue to the lower courts for further consideration.
Judge Helene White, another appointee of President George W. Bush, offered the dissenting opinion in the case. She wrote that the Kentucky and Tennessee laws “cannot pass constitutional muster” and “facially discriminate based on a minor’s sex as assigned at birth and on a minor’s failure to conform with societal expectations concerning that sex.”
“Tennessee’s and Kentucky’s laws tell minors and their parents that the minors cannot undergo medical care because of the accidents of their births and their failure to conform to how society believes boys and girls should look and live,” she concluded. “The laws further deprive the parents—those whom we otherwise recognize as best suited to further their minor children’s interests—of their right to make medical decisions affecting their children in conjunction with their children and medical practitioners. For these reasons, I dissent.”
Trans Activists Weighing Options to Challenge
The ACLU and other legal representatives who helped to challenge the Kentucky and Tennessee laws are weighing their next legal options following the Thursday appeals court ruling.
“Denying transgender youth equality before the law and needlessly withholding the necessary medical care their families and their doctors know is right for them has caused and will continue to cause serious harm,” the ACLU said in a joint statement with Lambda Legal and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. “We are assessing our next steps and will take further action in defense of our clients and the constitutional rights of transgender people in Tennessee and across the country.”
The ruling is the second by a federal appeals court upholding bans like the ones Kentucky and Tennessee enacted. Last month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s preliminary injunction and allowed Alabama to proceed with its own laws regulating hormone treatments and transgender surgeries for children.
Federal courts across the country remain divided on these kinds of laws.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated the Thursday ruling as a “big win for Democracy.”
“Decisions that are not clearly resolved by the Constitution should be resolved by the people through their elected representatives,” Mr. Skrmetti said in a Thursday press statement. “I am so proud of our team who stood strong against the overwhelming resources arrayed against Tennessee in this case.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron also praised the decision, while taking aim at Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for opposing the legislation banning transgender hormone treatments and surgeries for minors. Earlier this year, Kentucky’s Republican legislative majority enacted its ban on such transgender treatments for minors, SB 150, after overriding a veto from Mr. Beshear.
“Despite full-throated denials by Governor Beshear and his far-left activists, our children would still be under attack without SB 150,” Mr. Cameron said on Thursday. “Andy Beshear won’t protect our kids, but I will, and I am proud to carry the mantle for this important law.”
