GLAD Statement on Supreme Court Action on Transgender Health Care Bans

Today the United States Supreme Court agreed to review a decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals preventing transgender youth from receiving necessary medical care in Tennessee and Kentucky.

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) issued the following statement:

State bans on health care for transgender adolescents are causing tremendous harm and suffering for transgender people and their families. In taking up this case, the Supreme Court has the opportunity to affirm what it found in its ruling in Bostock just 4 years ago and to make clear that our Constitution does not abide laws that single out transgender people for discrimination.

The Sixth Circuit decision which the Supreme Court has now agreed to review reversed federal district court rulings halting transgender health care bans in Kentucky – in a challenge brought by NCLR and the ACLU of Kentucky – and in Tennessee – in challenges brought by Lambda Legal and the ACLU as well as by the Department of Justice.

GLAD is currently challenging state bans on health care for transgender people in Alabama as well as in Florida, where a federal court earlier this month permanently blocked the law banning care for transgender adolescents and severely restricting it for adults.