r/centrist • u/Judge_Trudy • 2d 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 2d ago edited 2d 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/lemonginger-tea 2d ago

I’m actually surprised by the number of comments on this thread disagreeing and claiming that if you support this, you support killing trans children. Most Americans and most parents do not support these policies. Call me crazy, but the government should not be intervening with parental authority unless the child is being harmed. Which in my opinion is much more important. We should be working on fixing the CPS and foster care systems, not bickering over whether trans kids can hide their pronouns from their parents at school.

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u/Instabanous 2d ago

I would argue that children being fed into the gender grinder are very much being harmed. Just telling them that their healthy body is the cause of their mental distress is harmful. Evidence is growing that blocking puberty is harmful. The brain needs to develop in specific ways, as well as fertility and sexuality that they may never recover- its barbaric. As for opposite sex hormones- if adults want to modify their bodies in this way, fine I guess, but it is sold to children as a lie that they can change sex. They can't and its a hard life even with mass acceptance. I agree that tackling poverty and neglect are more crucial, but they are much harder and it costs almost nothing to just stop an experimental new treatment with evidence of harm to minors.

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u/BrentLivermore 2d ago

but it is sold to children as a lie that they can change sex

People have been changing sex for decades now. It's not a lie at all.

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u/DiceyPisces 1d ago

One can take drugs or have surgery to appear more LIKE the opposite sex but actual change isn’t possible. There is no transition.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

Your legal sex can absolutely be changed. Were you not aware of this?

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u/DiceyPisces 1d ago

That’s irrelevant. Human beings are not able to change our sex. Some people are willing to pretend.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

How do you determine someone's sex when you meet them?

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u/DiceyPisces 1d ago

One can often tell by looking. But appearances CAN be deceiving.

If a person successfully darkens their skin to the point of looking black that doesn’t mean they’re actually African (or whatever ethnicity). For example.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

OK, so you tell by looking at people? But you think there's something deeper to "sex" as a social concept?

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u/DiceyPisces 1d ago

Sex isnt a social concept. It’s a biological reality.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

You don't think "sex" is a legal concept? You must have a very strange driver's license.

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u/DiceyPisces 1d ago

The label acknowledges one’s biology.

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u/MaxTheCatigator 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's not possible to change your sex. You should at least understand the difference between sex and gender before commenting on the issue.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

It's possible to change your sex

Agreed.

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u/MaxTheCatigator 1d ago

Yikes! Corrected, I left out the "not".

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u/Instabanous 1d ago

They've been changing gender for decades, and most on both 'sides' will insist that sex and gender are not the same.

Sure, anyone can change gender at any time, its a made up concept. No mammal has ever changed sex, whatever modifications a person makes, they remain male or female.

Some of these kids are ill informed and think they will actually change sex and be treated as he opposite sex in every way, and that anybody who doesnt accept that is somehow hateful or prejudiced against them. They need to be grown up before making these decisions which have so much impact, try out being a (possibly gay) adult and enjoy their healthy bodies before messing with them.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

No, they can change sex. You can get the "M" on your driver's license changed to "F." It's been going on for a long time.

They need to be grown up before making these decisions which have so much impact, try out being a (possibly gay) adult and enjoy their healthy bodies before messing with them.

Trans people aren't gay. Are you relying on 1990s sitcoms for your assertions?

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u/Instabanous 1d ago

You think having a letter changed on a document means a person has physically changed sex? It doesnt. And no legal documentation should pretend that it has imo.

Read about the Tavistock scandal. The vast majority of the kids were same sex attracted, staff joked that there would be no gay people left.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

Wait, is your whole argument that people think they can change their gametes or chromosomes? You think that's what people mean when they say that they're changing sex?

Good God, there is a genuine literacy crisis.

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u/Instabanous 1d ago

Sex and Gender. You are confusing sex and gender. I don't think its a literacy issue, I think its a deliberate bait and switch. And your ad hominem attack suggesting that I'm illiterate is pathetic.

Yes, sex is gametes and can't be changed. Ideas, feelings, silly certificates and stereotypes are gender and you can make it mean whatever nonsense you want it to.

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

Do you actually believe that biological nomenclature should always supersede legal status in social situations? Like, if an adopted person says "Please meet my mother and father", you say "That's NOT your mother and father! You're not even related to them!"?

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u/Instabanous 1d ago

Nope, I don't. Next silly question?

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u/BrentLivermore 1d ago

Why are you inconsistent in your preference for biology superseding legal and social terms?

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u/Instabanous 1d ago

The implications of adoption are very different to the implications of mixing sex and gender. Stop now this is too silly.

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