Supreme Court to weigh Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care

June 24 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments on Tennessee's 2023 ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Oral arguments in which the court will weigh the constitutionality of the ban, which was most recently upheld by a lower court, are likely to be scheduled in the court's next term which begins in October and ends June 2025.

The Tennessee law restricts puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors. This will be the first time the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the issue of medical care for transgender youth.

The plaintiffs, which include transgender teens and their families, claim the Tennessee ban violates their 14th Amendment rights mandating that the law shall apply equally to everyone, including the right to medical treatment. It also contends it violates the right of a parent to make health care decisions for their child.

"As politicians continue to fuel divisions for their own political gain, it's crucial to recognize that for trans youth and their families, this isn't about politics," Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, an attorney for Tennessee's American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement . "It's about the fundamental freedom to access vital, life-saving healthcare."

A separate ACLU official said ongoing bans represent a "dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law."

"The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this Court adhering to the facts, the Constitution, and its own modern precedent," said Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project. "They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms."

Previously, two federal judge's last June blocked Tennessee and Kentucky's ban on gender-affirming care for youth.

Their last-minute rulings blocked parts of the two states' controversial bans on minors receiving hormones and puberty blockers that are part of gender-affirming care therapies for gender-related issues.

The Human Rights Campaign took to social media Monday morning to call for the Supreme Court to "protect trans youth."

"The Supreme Court will decide on a gender-affirming care ban for trans youth out of the Sixth Circuit," the HRC posted on X just after 11 a.m. EDT. "Their decision may allow for a restoration of care."

Meanwhile, Federal Judge Robert Hinkle earlier this month struck down Florida's ban on gender-affirming care for adults, saying it was discriminatory, had no legitimate state interest and violated the equal protection rights of transgender people.

But the Supreme Court has so far been selective of the cases they take related to transgender rights which will have national implications either way.

Notably, the country's high court declined to hear a past case that would have blocked transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that matched their gender identity. And it likewise said no in January to hearing a similar case.

The Supreme Court in April allowed the state of Idaho to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for teens in a 6-3 decision falling along conservative-liberal lines.

More than 20 states have enacted similar bans, according to the LGBTQ rights organization Movement Advancement Project .

In a related matter, West Virginia's attorney general, also a candidate this year for governor, said in April the state plans to appeal to the Supreme Court a recent ruling against West Virginia's 2021 transgender athlete ban.

That came around the time Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat and former school superintendent, vetoed a similar ban for transgender athletes in the coveted swing-state.