This Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States began the initial hearings of one of the cases on the rights of trans people that could be decisive for the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in January. The president-elect has promised to dismantle many of the advances made by the group, such as access to gender-affirming treatments or the recognition of gender felt at a legal level.
The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, will hear arguments against the ban in the state of Tennessee on minors accessing treatments that allow them to live with their gender identity, regardless of the sex with which they were registered at birth. These procedures include puberty blockers or other hormonal treatments.
Trump’s second term represents a tangible threat to trans people, so the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Tennessee case will be an indicator of the extent to which the high court will act as a firewall against the president-elect’s desires to end rights. of the collective. About 300,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17, and about 1.3 million adults, identify as transgender in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA.
The resolution will also set a precedent for the other 25 states that have issued similar laws and will mark the limits for future legislative proposals related to trans people, such as those that could regulate their participation in the world of sports or the use of bathrooms.
An electoral workhorse
The rights of trans people and, especially, minors’ access to gender-affirming treatments, have been one of Trump’s main battlehorses during the campaign. Although Democratic candidate Kamala Harris barely mentioned identity politics or the trans community, many of the Republican’s electoral ads closed with the slogan “Kamala is for them/them. President Trump is for you.” In English, pronouns they and them They are the ones used as a neutral formula for non-binary people.
In August, during an event organized by the ultra-conservative group Mom’s for LibertyTrump promised that “on the first day” of his arrival at the White House, he would sign an “executive order directing all federal agencies to stop promoting gender or sex transition at any age.” The Republican did not specify which federal agencies he was referring to, but he has stated that he will stop sending funds to schools that promote ideas. woke upamong them, those related to trans people or gender transition.
Just as he has targeted abortion clinics, Trump has also attacked hospitals and centers that provide gender-affirming treatments. During the campaign, he promised that he would defund clinics that offered these types of procedures, and that these clinics would no longer meet federal health and safety standards. Another of the star promises that appears in the Republican Party platform is “to keep men out of women’s competitions.”
Is it “sex discrimination”?
The US Supreme Court will have to decide whether Tennessee’s ban violates the clause of the 14th Amendment, which states that people in similar circumstances must be treated equally by law. That state prohibits puberty blockers and treatments for minors, but “not in all cases,” since they continue to be prescribed for minors in other situations. For this reason, the families have presented the appeal to the Supreme Court alleging that it is “discrimination based on sex” to prevent trans minors from accessing these treatments, while others do have access.
The state of Tennessee is aware of this reality, but rejects that there is discrimination based on sex and defends that the ban was approved to protect minors from the risks of “life-altering gender transition” procedures. One of the arguments of defenders of the state ban on the use of hormones and blockers in trans minors is that many children who said they were trans ended up changing their minds. Both proponents of the ban and families who have appealed against it say they are acting to protect minors.
Currently, Tennessee families with trans minors are forced to travel out of state to receive treatment. Various research shows how trans minors have a tendency to suffer from stress, depression and have suicidal thoughts, while other studies suggest that treatments for gender dysphoria can improve people’s well-being.
During the campaign, Trump revived the hoax that schools are encouraging boys and girls to undergo sex-change surgeries as part of gender-affirming treatments. The reality is that surgeries in gender affirmation treatments are very rare and specific in minors, and the majority of those performed are breast reduction in older minors.
Gender-affirming treatments are supported by the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. When a trans minor begins the gender affirmation process, he or she first undergoes a medical evaluation and diagnosis, from which the administration of puberty blockers can be recommended. Only after treatment with blockers is it considered whether it is necessary to administer hormones. Surgery is the last resort and is very rarely applied in minors.
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