psa: you can watch the trans film Heightened Scrutiny for free in honor of TDOV, then discuss it with other LGBTQ+ youth!
Heightened Scrutiny is the doc that follows Chase Strangio's battles at the Supreme Court for transgender adolescents’ access to gender-affirming healthcare.
in honor of Trans Day of Visibility, they'll be streaming it on Kinema in a pay-what-you-wish format from March 30 - April 5, so you can watch at home for free! any proceeds over $1 go toward supporting the film's independent release and impact campaign where the film partners with organizations fighting for trans rights.
you can pre-order your ticket here to watch from home.
if you've got thoughts after watching, then you should deff join our stream with LGBTQ+ youth to discuss the film on TDOV! our Youth Voices Jay and Marshall, plus Youth Voices alumn Mia, will chat with Mila from Heightened Scrutiny about her experience being in the film, and what it's like being young trans activists in today's political climate.
after you watch, come chat in community on Twitch March 31 at 8pm ET/5pm PT: twitch.tv/itgetsbetter
As the Supreme Court takes up a pivotal case, trans youth and their families brace for a life-changing decision.
Lil Kalish at HuffPost:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments for the most important transgender rights case it has ever reviewed — one that could have significant consequences on the future of lifesaving gender-affirming care for youth in the country.
At the heart of the case, United States v. Skrmetti, is the question of whether a Tennessee ban on such care violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex. The Tennessee law, Senate Bill 1, encourages minors to “appreciate their sex” by prohibiting puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy for the purposes of allowing young people to live as an “identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
The Department of Justice, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union, who petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case, have argued that Tennessee’s law amounts to sex discrimination because it specifically bars transgender youth from these medications while allowing cisgender youth to undergo the same treatments for other conditions, such as early puberty.
“This case contains some of the worst leaning into sex stereotypes that I’ve ever seen in a statute,” said Sasha Buchert, the director of the nonbinary and transgender rights project at Lambda Legal, the oldest LGBTQ+ law firm in the U.S. “It’s clearly a sex-based consideration because this is the same care that [they’re] just banning for trans people. But even further, there is this gender conformity aspect to the statute, which I think is implicit in all of these bans that we’ve seen. It’s just that Tennessee didn’t want to hide it.”
Tennessee has argued that the law does not specifically target trans people, although the state acknowledges that the ban sets “age- and use-based limits” on puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for the “purpose of gender transition.” (Gender-affirming surgeries are not an issue in the Supreme Court case, however, as a district court threw out a challenge to those procedures.)
The law has faced legal challenges since the Tennessee legislature first passed it in March 2023. One month later, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a trans teen identified as L.W., two other families of trans youth, and a Memphis-based doctor. The DOJ then joined the suit.
That summer, a district court found that the ban likely violated the U.S. Constitution and issued a preliminary injunction on parts of the law regarding puberty blockers and hormones. Tennessee’s attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which overturned that ruling. The Biden administration then asked the Supreme Court to review this case, arguing that any ban on trans health constitutes sex discrimination.
Since the Supreme Court only took up the Biden administration’s appeal, the court will not be weighing in on the question of whether the state law violates the “fundamental right of parents” to make medical decisions for their children, which is a central question in a separate lawsuit, L.W. v. Skrmetti.
The outcome of United States v. Skrmetti will provide much-needed legal clarity for trans youth and their families amidst an increasingly anti-trans political climate. Twenty-six states have passed laws restricting health care providers from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones, as well as performing surgeries on transgender youth.
Lower courts across the country have handed down conflicting rulings when these laws have been challenged. By and large, district court judges have attempted to block these bans, finding them unconstitutional after applying “heightened scrutiny” — a high legal standard used in civil rights cases that forces the government to prove a vested interest in the application of the law. Appeals court judges, on the other hand, have typically used “rational basis,” a lower form of review, when overturning previous injunctions of these bans.
Chase Strangio, the co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project, said on a press call Monday that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Tennessee, it could “erode protections when it comes to sex-based discrimination,” especially in the context of medical care, long term. Strangio, the first trans lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court, is set to deliver a 15-minute oral argument on behalf of the three families of trans youth and the Memphis-based doctor on Wednesday.
However, if the Supreme Court rules as the district courts have by applying “heightened scrutiny,” then it will determine that bans on trans health care constitute sex discrimination, similar to how the high court determined in the Bostock v. Clayton County case that discrimination against trans employees is also sex discrimination.
[...]
Science Versus Skeptics
There is a body of scientific evidence to show that puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy substantially reduce gender dysphoria in adolescent patients, dozens of medical associations argued in briefs submitted to the Supreme Court in September. Doctors, medical groups, LGBTQ+ advocates, Democrats, Republicans and trans individuals have submitted briefs on the efficacy of gender-affirming care to alleviate dysphoria and prevent suicide.
However, Tennessee’s brief to the court is skeptical of gender-affirming care. It argues that these medical interventions are “experimental” and claims that at one point a Tennessee hospital, Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, began providing trans health care in order to “make a lot of money.” The brief discusses at length how certain “media reports” about Vanderbilt providing gender-affirming care to minors exposed the hospital’s true intentions.
[...]
United States v. Skrmetti comes at a pivotal time for trans rights in the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “stop” gender-affirming care for minors nationwide, which he has equated to “child abuse” and “sexual mutilation.” The incoming president has also appointed Russell Vought, the co-author of Project 2025, as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump term, includes dozens of policies that erase federal protections for LGBTQ+ people, including allowing Medicare and Medicaid to deny coverage for gender-affirming care and removing trans-inclusive protections from Title IV.
Tomorrow at SCOTUS: a very big case on gender-affirming care will be heard for oral arguments, and it is United States v. Skrmetti. The Skrmetti case is a crucial case to determine the fate of gender-affirming care for trans and gender-expansive youths (and adults).
#LGBTQPeopleAreNotGoingBack
See Also:
The Advocate: What to expect in this week’s landmark gender-affirming care U.S. Supreme Court case
I think it might not be on YouTube yet but I'm listening to the newest ep of A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein on my podcast app and he has Chase Strangio on as a guest!
Worth listening if you're interested in the history & present of queer & trans rights in the US. Chase is incredibly knowledgeable and it was a joy to listen to him.
You’re DISGUSTING. You are fucking DISGUSTING. Chase Strangio is fighting for the EXISTENCE of trans people! Are you that transphobic? Do you think trans kids should have to live in the wrong body day after day? That IS child abuse and parents shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it because of their “rights”! Trans people have the right to exist in their authentic bodies and if you disagree just admit that you’re a fucking monster. We will not let trans people become extinct!
If the options are minors being taken away from their parents because they won’t allow them to “transition” via life altering drugs and bodily mutilation or trans adults ceasing to exist then I’ll choose the latter every time. Call me a transphobe all day and all night, I don’t care.
