Federal Appeals Court Upholds Tennessee’s Ban Against Sex Change Treatments For Children

Image: Potter Stewart US Federal Courthouse, Cincinnati, OH Image Credit: Warren LeMay / Public Domain

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Tennessee can move forward with a ban on gender-transition treatment for minors, according to a federal court ruling from September 28.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected an appeal from families of transgender children, stating that the laws do not discriminate based on age or sex. The ruling, which prohibits treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries, applies to both Tennessee and Kentucky.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said that without the laws, “Tennessee and Kentucky will suffer harm from their inability to enforce the will of their legislatures, to further the public-health considerations undergirding the laws, and to avoid health risks to their children. As for the public interest, Tennessee and Kentucky’s interests in applying these laws to their residents and in being permitted to protect their children from health risks weigh heavily in favor of the States at this juncture.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti released a statement calling the decision a “win for democracy.”

“Decisions that are not clearly resolved by the Constitution should be resolved by the people through their elected representatives,” he stated.

Federal district courts overturned bans in several states such as Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th District recently upheld a similar restriction in Alabama last month. It is expected that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the issue within the next year.

According to U.S. News & World Report, children are protected from gender dysphoria treatments in at least 20 states.

The matter ended up before the Court of Appeals shortly after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a law that would ban sex change operations for minors, when the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of several Tennessee families. Those families alleged that the legislation would force them to move out of state in order to continue that they claimed to be “life-saving health care” for their children.

However, the law allows minors who were receiving treatment before July 1 to continue that treatment until March 31, 2024.

In a joint statement, the ACLU and Lambda Legal said the decision is a “devastating blow” to these families.

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton said that the federal government has a “long tradition of permitting state governments to regulate medical treatments for adults and children” as long as there is no federal law that would affect that decision. He was joined in his assent by Judge Amul Thapar.

The court also noted that because such treatments are fairly new, it is “difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits.”

Judge Helene White, the lone judge who voted in opposition of the decision, said that states do not have the authority to “intrude on the well-established province of parents to make medical decisions for their minor children.” She argues that the laws are a violation of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Southern Baptist ethicist Brent Leatherwood praised the decision.

“It is inconceivable that such sensible laws could be contested…our culture desperately needs voices that remind individuals about the goodness of God’s design for gender and how we are meant to flourish as either a man or a woman,” Leatherwood said.