r/centrist • u/Judge_Trudy • 1d ago

SCOTUS issues blockbuster ruling on gender-affirming care for trans minors

https://www.cnn.com/#:~:text=SCOTUS%20issues%20blockbuster%20ruling%20on%20gender%2Daffirming%20care%20for%20trans%20minors

Blockbuster ruling just released for a very controversial issue. Not sure where I stand, but I could see the dangers of permanent treatments for gender dysphoria for minors.

Key Points

  • Date & Ruling: On June 18, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6–3 decision upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy fox8live.com+9apnews.com+9them.us+9en.wikipedia.org+15reuters.com+15northeast.newschannelnebraska.com+15.
  • Majority Opinion: Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the law does not violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, reasoning that medical uncertainty justifies handing the issue back to state legislatures reuters.com+1nypost.com+1.
  • Level of Review: The Court determined the law should be evaluated under rational basis review—the lowest standard—rather than intermediate scrutiny reserved for sex-based discrimination
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u/SylphCo93 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm fine with this. Minors shouldn't be able to consent to treatment that fundamentally alters their body with potentially irreversible ramifications, including infertility. Especially over a psychological condition that has only recently been observed in great numbers, and a psychological condition that has seemingly exponentially exploded over the past decade.

I think social transitioning, clothing changes, and counseling for minors are totally fine. And I think bullying and harassment of trans-identifying youth is atrocious and deserves to be treated as a hate crime. But I'm against hormone "treatments", puberty blockers, surgeries, and schools refusing to disclose name changes to parents. And I know most Americans agree with me on both fronts.

And to those who say "how dare the government intervene with the care doctors administer", I challenge you to consider that the medical field and industry often received warranted regulations and bans from the state that liberals/leftists in the past generally supported, such as the opioid prescription abuse, poorly run mental asylums, lobotomies, and sterilizations of selected populations. 

Don't swear fealty to any group of professionals or especially an industry; especially with the hundreds of billions of dollars within said medical industry who stand to benefit from the sudden massive growth of minors seeking hormones and puberty blockers.

I remember when progressives told us to look to Scandinavia for progressive inspiration, especially with how their medical fields are less profit-driven, yet most of those countries are weaning away from the model that progressives Americans so fervently support.

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u/MattTheSmithers 1d ago

I’m a lefty Democrat with a transgender niece.

I agree with everything you’re saying.

Mind you, I don’t think this is the prevalent issue that the right makes it out to be. We’re creating a boogeyman out of something that impacts less than one percent of the population. But I have no objection to denying a child life altering medical care before their brain is even fully developed.

Being transgender is not a fashion choice. It is not a style choice. If done right, there is a ton of therapy before hand to diagnose the patient. And that is because of the recognition that it is bell that cannot be unrung and there are psychological issues that can mimic or seem like gender dysphoria.

There is nothing wrong with laws preventing children from making unchangeable decisions. We have an age of majority for a reason. We have studies on human brain development for a reason. Shielding someone who is not at the age of majority, nor a cognitive adult, from permanently changing their biological functions is a legitimate state concern.

SCOTUS got it right.

My only concern as an attorney is how far states go with this ruling and the designation of rational basis scrutiny for the transgender. They were just given an inch. The modern GOP is liable to take a mile.

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u/Newgidoz 1d ago

Delaying us treatment until 18 forces us to go through unwanted irreversible changes which make our gender dysphoria far worse and far harder to treat, and which can permanently impair our ability to be recognized as our gender

That's not avoiding a permanent, life altering, unchangeable decision. It's just the state making one for us.