Supreme Court poised to enter debate over transgender care for minors

WASHINGTON — After steering clear of the divisive issue for months, the Supreme Court may be on the verge of deciding whether to jump into the national debate over medical treatment for transgender youths.

As soon as Thursday justices may vote behind closed doors on whether to grant an appeal that seeks to block a new Tennessee law prohibiting medical treatments that enable a "minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex."

They have been in no hurry to act, however, and it's possible they will put off the issue again. For weeks, they have repeatedly delayed a vote on the case, likely reflecting a division — either between liberals and conservatives, or perhaps inside the conservative majority.

At stake is the fate of a wave of a new state laws in the South and Midwest that bar transgender teens and their parents from obtaining puberty blockers and other hormones prescribed by a doctor.

Some 24 conservative states have passed restrictions on treatment for transgender youth, potentially affecting about 114,000 minors, or more than a third of transgender youth in the United States, according to The Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School. Many of those state laws have been blocked temporarily by judges.

If the court turns down the Tennessee appeal and says nothing more, it could signal that treatment bans for transgender youth are likely to take effect in about half of the nation. Then the map of the states would largely match the red state-blue state divide on abortion.

If justices agree to hear the appeal, it could put the issue on track for arguments later this year.

Progressive advocates for transgender youth are looking to the Supreme Court for help.

"This is a crisis and the only court that can weigh in to remedy it is the Supreme Court," said Chase Strangio, the ACLU's deputy director for transgender justice. "This is wreaking havoc with families who have to leave their homes to protect their children."

The ACLU and Lambda Legal sued to challenge the Tennessee law on behalf of three transgender adolescents and their parents who had been obtaining hormones from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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