WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Senator Ed Markey (MA), and Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) filed an amicus brief to defend transgender Americans’ right to access medically-necessary healthcare in the upcoming Supreme Court case U.S. v. Skrmetti. The brief was joined, in total, by 11 Senators and 153 Representatives, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (CA-33), and every Equality Caucus Co-Chair and Vice Chair. The members’ brief highlights the role that animosity has played in legislation banning medically necessary care for transgender youth and urges the court to strike down Tennessee’s ban.
“Decisions about healthcare belong to patients, their doctors, and their families—not politicians,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “The law at issue in this case is motivated by an animus towards the trans community and is part of a cruel, coordinated attack on trans rights by anti-equality extremists. We strongly urge the Supreme Court to uphold the constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law and strike down Tennessee’s harmful ban.”
“For years, far-right Republicans have been leading constant, relentless, and escalating attacks on transgender Americans. Their age-old, discriminatory playbook now threatens access to lifesaving, gender-affirming care for more than 100,000 transgender and nonbinary children living in states with these bans if the Supreme Court uphold laws like Tennessee’s at the heart of Skrmetti fueled by ignorance and hate.” said Senator Markey. “It takes a special type of cruelty to target children for who they are. I am proud to stand with my colleagues against dangerous, transphobic attacks and reaffirming that our nation’s commitment should be to equality and justice for all.”
“Tennessee’s discriminatory ban on transgender minors’ access to necessary healthcare is an illegitimate law enacted as part of a nationwide movement to villainize trans people for political gain” said House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler. “Transgender people deserve the same access to healthcare as everyone else. There is no constitutionally sound justification to strip from families with transgender children, and their doctors, the decision to seek medical care and give it to politicians sitting in the state capitol. I trust parents, not politicians, to decide what is best for their transgender children.”
“This case is about the freedom to access medically necessary care,” said Energy & Commerce Committee Ranking Member Pallone. “Tennessee’s SB1 is a clear violation of the Constitution and blatantly interferes in doctors’ ability to care for their patients in consultation with their families. Moreover, if allowed to stand, it will establish a dangerous precedent that will open the floodgates to further discrimination against transgender Americans.”
“Access to medically necessary care for trans youth saves lives,” said Senator Merkley, author of the Equality Act. “Unending attacks from MAGA extremists across the nation are putting trans youth at risk with hateful laws to ban gender-affirming care. Let’s get politicians—who have no expertise in making decisions for patients—out of the exam room. The Court must reject these divisive policies, and Congress must pass the Equality Act to fully realize a more equal and just union for all.”
“Thank you to the many Members of Congress for standing with transgender and non-binary youth across our country in asking the Supreme Court to find bans on life-saving gender-affirming care to be unconstitutional,” said David Stacy, Human Rights Campaign Vice President of Government Affairs. “The government should not be able to interfere in decisions that are best made between families and doctors, particularly when that care is necessary and best practice. These bans are dangerous, animated purely by anti-transgender bias, and have forced families to make heartbreaking decisions to support their children.”
BACKGROUND
This fall, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, where the Court will consider whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1) violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. SB1 prohibits medical procedures, including puberty blockers or hormones, for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with a gender separate from the sex they were assigned at birth or to treat gender dysphoria.
This case is about the constitutionality of government bans on hormone treatment for transgender youth with gender dysphoria and implicates the ability of countless transgender youth across the country to receive medically necessary care. The Supreme Court’s decision here could also impact how courts consider constitutional challenges to all forms of government discrimination against transgender people and has even broader potential implications regarding the rights and bodily autonomy of all Americans.
BACKGROUND ON HEALTHCARE FOR TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
Transgender people deserve to be able to access the essential, medically necessary healthcare needed to promote their health and wellbeing.
Every major medical and mental health association in the U.S., representing more than 1.3 million U.S. doctors, supports providing this medically necessary, evidence-based care for transgender people. This includes the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Endocrine Society, among other organizations.
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