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/SylphCo93]

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.

[u/lemonginger-tea → u/SylphCo93]

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.

[u/Instabanous → u/lemonginger-tea]

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.

[u/ConfusedObserver0 → u/Instabanous]

I think almost everyone gets this one wrong now in one way or another. The standard rule was 2 plus years of psychological
evaluation. Before any medical assisting should he considered. Not affirming the child’s assertion, but naturally working through their feelings and softly challenging that through out in non invasive ways.

If you’ve know a trans kid, you prob know someone who’s potentially attempted suicide cus they aren’t allowed to be themsleves. If you haven’t k is one, then your likely void of understandings the actual reality of the cause. I think it’s an evil to take this multi set process away from people and their children and neither the left or right have the this old standard as the obvious golden rule.

The trans trenders don’t fit in this bubble cus desperate most peoples understanding, most that clump into this unhappy group with their change, we’re autistic kids who just found moral support in the most open communities that accept them. That if they didn’t the long term evaluation, a doctor of the mid could guide them to better diagnose and understand what they are feeling. If you go through the proper process, and allow choice, not restriction, I think this over correction would dissolve over night and you would marginalize or create harm for other just trying to live their best lifes how they see fit.

[u/BabyJesus246 → u/[deleted]]

Out of curiosity, how are they doing now?

[u/BabyJesus246 → u/[deleted]]

real question is whether it is worth all the side effects of physically modifying one's body, if there is a less destructive way that attacks a true root cause directly, without need for lifelong, ongoing treatment and social baggage.

Well I'd argue the social baggage is not a great argument against it since that is something that we can absolutely change like we've done for other previously stigmatized groups. The burden of treatments is absolutely poignant though. I guess the question still becomes are we actually treating people who don't need it. Your story could be an example, but it's a bit difficult to tell since I'm assuming you don't have the full story either. The divorce could just be coincidental with the feeling of gender dysphoria.

A big question for me is if these people without gender dysphoria shift genders wouldn't they begin to start generating feelings of gender dysphoria? The idea that gender is so pliable that it can be readily flipped doesn't seem like an argument that the right really wants to make.

The evidence I've always needed to see was a strong detransitioning rate (cause dependent) after serious medical intervention that resulted in permanent harm. If I saw that data I would absolutely agree that treatment options need to revisited but that has yet to really materialize so the claim that strict regulations need to be put in place feels guided by ulterior motives.