LA Times By David G. Savage 5/7/2024
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 youths 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.
More:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-05-07/supreme-court-transgender-teens
