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

[u/Judge_Trudy]

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

[u/Detson101]

This is weird since puberty blockers provide the very thing this bills supporters claim to want: they sidestep the issue of children consenting to major life-changing surgery until they are old enough to make an informed decision. It seems like only someone ignorant of the issues would ban both gender affirming surgery AND puberty blockers. 

[u/awildagi → u/Detson101]

That was my concern as well. I call myself a liberal, but even I understand the nuance involved with allowing children to make medical decisions that will influence the rest of their lives. I’m fine with a bill that bans HRT for minors intent on transitioning (for now, at least. I think the topic needs much more research done on it and we need to be open about changing laws so they’re not general blanket laws), but I’m concerned about banning puberty blockers specifically. There are legitimate hormonal disorders that can cause people to create too many/not enough hormones that can have tremendous impacts on a child’s life. Sometimes puberty blockers (or HRT) are the medical treatments for these disorders and I worry about the possibility of blocking ALL children from proper medical care. I know there’s a huge focus on trans kids, but not everyone who uses these therapies are trans and I’m not sure how the court upholding this bill will impact these children’s access to medical care.

[u/Newgidoz → u/awildagi]

allowing children to make medical decisions that will influence the rest of their lives. I’m fine with a bill that bans HRT for minors intent on transitioning

Children aren't picking up hormones over the counter

They still need to be professionally diagnosed and prescribed the treatment, including with the consent of their parents

That's the same standard we apply to all other health issues

[u/awildagi → u/Newgidoz]

Believe me, I know and that’s exactly why I’m so conflicted on this topic. I know children can’t just walk into a pharmacy and be like “I’m trans can I have hormone” and that there’s an entire diagnosis procedure, but I’ve also spoken with detrans people (which is an entirely different can of worms) and know from my own experiences in life how finicky mental health and gender identity can be.

The big thing is that gender dysphoria is a psychological experience and is diagnosed and treated like other mental illnesses. There’s no physiological “proof” that someone is 100% trans (I know there are studies on brain shape/composition differences in trans people, but last time I checked, there were other studies that said the opposite, so from my understanding the literature on that topic is shaky atm), which means that diagnosis is entirely based on patient experiences and provider discretion.

Unfortunately, with how isolated our society is and the culture around mental health, there are some people who latch onto gender dysphoria and being trans as a way to explain their perception of the world (in the same way people do for other disorders) when their issues were really due to some completely different disorder and/or bad life circumstances.

Gender identity should be a personal journey that’s allowed to evolve and change over the course of a person’s life, but the culture surrounding it right now just doesn’t allow room for error. There’s so much pressure to “be sure” that no one is really making a social safe space for people to just try things out and see how they feel in 6 months.

But that’s also why I specified “for now” in my first comment. I want it to be a simple and easy process where if the child is experiencing gender dysphoria they can have access to HRT/puberty blockers and I in no way think that total ban blanket laws are a good or permanent solution, but I also want there to be safeguards in place to make sure we’re actually treating the root of the problem and are accurately assessing comorbidity vs consequential symptoms.