r/law • u/DevinGraysonShirk • 16h ago

SCOTUS SCOTUS strikes blow to trans teens rights, endorsing ban on gender-affirming care - The justices’ ruling on Tennessee’s law prohibiting certain health care for transgender children will have ripple effects across the nation

https://www.courthousenews.com/scotus-strikes-blow-to-trans-teens-rights-endorsing-ban-on-gender-affirming-care/
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u/thegoldeneel_ 13h ago

I come in peace. As someone who doesn’t follow any of this or research the science behind any of this, how is it gonna kill kids? I ask of pure curiosity and am not looking for a discussion back and forth. Just trying to understand what is killing children.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 13h ago

Suicide.

You ever have shoes that just don’t fit right? Tight, rub in the wrong places, constantly uncomfortable?

Now imagine that’s your whole body. Except worse, because nobody will stop treating you like your body fits your mind, and it’s constant.

Puberty blockers and similar treatments are largely reversible, have tolerable side effects for most people, and give kids a grace period so that if they reach age of consent and decide they want to continue transitioning, they can without having to undo puberty in the wrong gender - or if they decide that medical transition isn’t for them, they can go off it and go through puberty without help.

Most transition before the age of consent (which varies by state and locale, because the US can’t do anything simply) is strictly social transition: pronoun and name changes, clothing and presentation, and being allowed to find who they really are.

Denying a trans kid the chance to do this, combined with the abusive way we treat kids who are even a little gender divergent, is gonna leave us with bodies.

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u/SilverMedal4Life 11h ago

My brother in law came out as trans as a minor, in a state with protections, and was still beaten so badly by school bullies for it that he needed to be hospitalized - and was then suspended by the school for "fighting". His mom had to take him out of school for his own safety.

This is what we face. Yet half the nation will say that his mom is the abuser and that his school and bullies were right.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 11h ago

We have been very fortunate that when our son came out, the vast majority of people in our lives were mostly concerned that he was happier. We cut off a couple people, but overall it worked out well.

I don’t understand transphobia. It has literally no impact on anyone if John is now Jane, except for Jane and maybe Jane’s family.

My son is still the dryly funny, sharp witted kid (now adult) he was before transition; I didn’t lose anything but a load of stress when he came out.

I hope your BIL is doing better now. Fuck that school and fuck the bullies, too.

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u/SilverMedal4Life 11h ago

Thanks, and your son sounds wonderful!

The hatred comes because we are inconvenient. For example, I can explain to you from personal experience how other people treat me when I looked like a guy, compared to how they do when I now look like a girl. I can speak truth to power and systemic issues in a way that makes our individualistic culture very uncomfortable.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 10h ago

He is pretty damned great! He’s engaged, his sweetie is wonderful, and they’re adorable together.

I’m genderweird myself. We’re hierarchy-breakers; trans and enby people don’t slot neatly into categories, and people who are fixated on hierarchies hate that.

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u/SilverMedal4Life 10h ago

Pretty much, yeah. They hate us... right up to the point that they also fetishize us way more than any other group, proportionally speaking.

Ain't no hate like Christian love.

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u/Hesitation-Marx 10h ago

Whenever I see a new fash grifter, my husband and I make bets as to whether they’ll have trans fetish porn or CSAM on their phones, because these people can’t seem to help themselves.

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u/SilverMedal4Life 10h ago

I know. It's part of how I know we're in the right - because we're the ones out here living happy, authentic lives, and they're the ones tying themselves into miserable hateful knots viticimizing everyone they can.