The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on the pivotal transgender case U.S. v. Skrmetti, and both the lawyers arguing against a Tennessee ban on “gender-affirming care” and three Supreme Court justices made dubious claims and stated outright falsehoods in support of experimental transgender “treatments.”
Tennessee’s SB1 bans medical procedures on minors for the purpose of “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or “treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the parents of minors who claim to identify as the opposite sex and claim to have benefited from these procedures, sued to block the law, and the Biden administration joined the lawsuit on the ACLU’s side.
The plaintiffs claim that SB1 violates federal law by discriminating against minors who identify as transgender, denying to them the same treatments that would be allowed for minors who do not so identify.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld Tennessee’s law, finding that it doesn’t entail discrimination. The U.S. and the ACLU appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio—a female who says she identifies as male—argued the case before the court Wednesday, as did Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice.
Prelogar, Strangio, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of President Joe Biden, twisted the truth on “gender-affirming care” in at least five ways.
1. ‘Puberty blockers’ are reversible
“Critically, puberty blockers have no effect, in and of themselves, on fertility, so I don’t think that concern can justify the ban on puberty blockers, which is just pressing pause on someone’s endogenous puberty to give them more time to understand their identity,” Prelogar argued.
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved GnRH agonists, which stands for “Gonadatropin-releasing hormone agonists,” for the treatment of gender dysphoria (the painful and persistent identification with the gender opposite one’s biological sex) in children. GnRH agonists prevent the natural release of testosterone and estrogen that initiate puberty.
David Gortler, a pharmacologist and pharmacist who previously was a senior adviser to the FDA commissioner on policy and drug safety, previously told The Daily Signal that physicians developed GnRH agonists to help treat certain cancers that depend on estrogen or testosterone.
Endocrinologists—doctors who specialize in the hormone-regulating endocrine system—have testified to the harms these drugs can cause. Dr. Paul Hruz, an endocrinology researcher and clinician at Washington University School of Medicine, wrote that after “an extended period of pubertal suppression,” patients can’t “turn back the clock” and “reverse changes in the normal coordinated pattern of adolescent psychological development and puberty.”
Dr. Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist from the United Kingdom, explained that the effects of certain chemicals on the human brain aren’t well known, and that current science does not support “puberty blockers” for adolescents.
“As puberty is associated with very marked changes in the structure of the brain … the use of puberty blockers may have serious consequences for the development of the human brain,” Scott warned. Studies in sheep and young girls suggest that these drugs affect the size of the amygdala. Male sheep treated with the drugs showed “more risk-taking behaviors,” while treated female sheep “showed higher levels of anxiety and greater avoidance behavior.” Girls treated with the drug also showed “significant greater emotional reactivity” and “lower heart rates.” They also scored lower on IQ tests after taking the drugs.
2. Suicidality
Strangio, the ACLU lawyer, claimed that it is “clearly established in the science and in the record” that “the medications in question reduce the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality, which are all indicators of potential suicide.” (Suicidality refers to the condition of contemplating suicide.) The lawyer admitted that there is no evidence “that this treatment reduces completed suicide” because “completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare.”
Yet Strangio claimed that “there are multiple studies, long-term longitudinal studies, that do show that there is a reduction in suicidality, which I think is a positive outcome to this treatment.”
The evidence is not as clear-cut as Strangio suggested, however.
In one email on Jan. 25, 2022, Shannon Sullivan, clinical team leader at the FDA’s Division of General Endocrinology, noted that the agency’s Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products performed a “safety review of the GnRH agonist class in pediatric patients in 2016/2017.”
Sullivan noted that while the study did not find effects on bone density, “We did find increased risk of depression and suicidality, as well as increased seizure risk, and we issued [safety-related labeling changes].”
In other words, some studies show the exact opposite of Strangio’s claim—that GnRH agonists increase, rather than decrease, thoughts of suicide.
3. Puberty as Harmful
“Gender-affirming care” advocates repeatedly suggested that the natural process of puberty causes harm to people who identify with the gender opposite their biological sex.
“If you’re thinking about this from the standpoint of, ‘There’s no harm in just making them wait until they’re adults,’ I think you have to recognize that the effect of denying this care is to produce irreversible physical effects that are consistent with their birth sex, because they have to go through puberty before they turn 18,” Prelogar argued.
“So, essentially what this law is doing is saying we’re going to make all adolescents in this state develop the physical secondary sex characteristics consistent with their gender or their sex assigned at birth, even though that might significantly worsen gender dysphoria, increase the risk of suicide, and—I think, critically—make it much harder to live and be accepted in their gender identity as a result,” she said.
Prelogar noted that a male who goes through puberty will develop an Adam’s apple, and that may make it harder for that man to “pass” as female, thereby subjecting him to discrimination in the future.
“You have this population of adolescents, and there are documented very essential benefits for a large number of them, and maybe a small number that will regret this care just like with any other medical care,” she added.
Prelogar’s argument flips the natural course of biology on its head. She and others are suggesting that the natural process of puberty is somehow harmful and that it is better for males who say they identify as female to undergo a chemically induced artificial facsimile of the natural process than it is for them to develop naturally.
The evidence for benefits of this artificial process is flimsy, but the associated harms are manifold—and that’s the exact reason why Tennessee’s General Assembly voted to protect minors from it.
4. ‘The Same’ Medical Condition
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Jackson repeatedly suggested that the Tennessee law bans puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones (estrogen for boys and testosterone for girls, to make them appear like the opposite sex) for males who identify as female and females who identify as male, but not for males who identify as male and females who identify as female.
Sotomayor said that a boy struggling with precocious puberty—the condition of starting puberty too early—would take the same medication as a girl who identifies as male.
“The medical condition is the same, but you’re saying one sex is getting it and the other is not,” she added.
“We do not agree that the medical condition is the same,” Rice, the Tennessee solicitor general, responded. “We do not think that giving puberty blockers to a 6-year-old that has started precocious puberty is the same medical treatment” as giving them “to a minor who wants to transition.”
While the two patients would take the same drug, the intended purpose and practical effect would be different. Sotomayor and Jackson were conflating two very different conditions.
5. ‘Gender Conformity’
Justice Elena Kagan argued that “one of the articulated purposes of this law is to essentially to encourage gender conformity and to discourage anything other than gender conformity.”
She cited the law’s text, which states that Tennessee has “a legitimate, substantial, and compelling interest in encouraging minors to appreciate their sex, particularly as they undergo puberty” and a similar interest “in protecting the integrity of the medical profession, including by prohibiting medical procedures that are harmful, unethical, immoral, experimental, or unsupported by high-quality or long-term studies, or that might encourage minors to become disdainful of their sex.”
She said that it “sounds to me that ‘we want boys to be boys and we want girls to be girls,’ and that’s an important purpose behind the law.”
Rice, representing Tennessee, noted that Kagan’s quotes come in the context of the state’s legislature attempting to prevent causing harm to minors. He noted studies in which minors’ mental health actually got worse after “gender-affirming care.”
“The legislature specifically noted those studies, so I think that statement was rooted in the notion that actually this is causing affirmative harm to minors that were undergoing the interventions, and that’s why they’re saying we don’t want these interventions that will cause minors to become disdainful of their sex,” he explained.
The law does not aim to set forth standards of masculinity to which boys must adhere, or standards of femininity that girls must follow. On the contrary, the transgender movement encourages boys who may have feminine traits to identify as girls and undergo medical interventions to alter their bodies. If any side is advocating conformity to gender standards, it is the transgender movement.
6. Comparison to Loving
Justice Jackson repeatedly compared SB1 to the Virginia law banning interracial marriage that the Supreme Court struck down in Loving v. Virginia (1967).
Prelogar agreed that both cases involve “overbroad generalizations of how we expect them to live and order their affairs,” such that “these laws disadvantage someone who falls outside the average description.”
“When we look at the structure of that law, it looks—you can’t do something that is inconsistent with your own characteristics—it’s sort of the same thing,” Jackson argued.
“In [Loving v. Virginia], those same kinds of scientific arguments were made,” Jackson claimed again when questioning Strangio.
She repeated the comparison a third time when asking Rice, Tennessee’s solicitor general.
“There, the question of can you marry this other person depended on what your race was. You could marry the other person if it was the same, consistent with your race. You couldn’t if [it wasn’t],” Jackson said. “I take your law to be doing basically the same thing. You can take these blockers if doing so is consistent with your sex, but not if it’s inconsistent.”
“In this case, the only way that they can point to a sex-based line is to equate fundamentally different medical treatments,” Rice responded. “Giving testosterone to a boy with a deficiency is not the same treatment as giving it to a girl who has psychological distress with her body.”
Any argument about discrimination relies on confusion about the basic fact that males going through male puberty is healthy and in accordance with nature, while males going through a false, manufactured facsimile of female puberty is not.
Correction: This article has been updated to correctly reflect the gender identity of the ACLU lawyer.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Tyler O’Neil.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
There is no such thing as transgender. Any farm kid can tell you that changing the gender of an animal can’t be done. If a bull or a stallion is neutered, it doesn’t become a female, called a heifer or a filly. It doesn’t magically or scientifically acquire the ability to perform the tasks of a female such as to give birth or produce milk. It becomes a neutered male, called a steer or a gelding. As for humans, there are only failed surgeries, failed hormone treatments and wishful thinking by sports cheats and those who would rather have been born as the opposite gender. The treatments are elective, 100% unsuccessful and must never be covered by insurance or by the taxpayers.
These children need a psychiatric help not surgeries. They are a play things in the hands of sadistic psychopaths who should never be allowed near the children Where are the parents? This is a sudden epidemic of sexual reassignments, like covid,the experts belong in prison for using those children for their own sick hocus pocus.
It’s difficult to make sane arguments against something inherently insane, but if Sotomayor wanted to compare apples with apples then she should equate this with someone trying to change their skin color in order to marry someone of a different race.
So now Justice Jackson can define a ‘female’ by using that in her discussion concerning this case before the Supreme Court? Is she now a ‘biologist’??
Both sides have compelling psycho/physiological arguments that the other side so vehemently rejects that the basic premise of gender altering care, or its denial, will never be accepted by the other. So, let that go for now. Instead, let’s focus on the gender neutral elephant in the room: Kids. Who owns ‘em, parents or the state? If you advocate for the state, then you have nuked the family unit. The family unit is the nation’s center of gravity. If we replace the family with the state then we have set both our culture and ultimately our national security on a perilous course. The left wants that. We cannot permit it. Parental rights is the hill we must be willing to die on. If we don’t, if we’re not willing to oppose the usurpation of the family unit by the state, then America is doomed.
Since when do democrats tell the Truth? NEVER.
Some of these justices do not have an IQ level high enough to sit on the Supreme Court! The one ding bat said she doesn’t know what a woman is because she’s not a biologist!!
Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, not something to be celebrated, encouraged, and taken advantage of by exploiting those children for financial gain to further the left’s goal to destroy the family as the core unit of our culture, and charging them thousands of dollars to mutilate them, and irreparably ruin their lives. Politicians, doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators aiding and abetting, and engaging in these practices should have to face trial for committing crimes against humanity, as it was done to the other NAZIs post WWII.
judge brown jackson is dumb
They could have every lawyer on the planet against this grotesque practice and not convince these people how utterly wrong they are. My bible tells me that in the beginning GOD created them Male and Female. I was raised on a farm and have yet to see a female bull, or a male cow. They are presenting these young people a life of living hell and all they care about is getting their way. The justices were right, and to but it mildly their idea is to put children into slavery to their own bodies, i personally believe they will eventually hate themselves so much they will not want to live. What a tragic thing to have such people on the surpreme court.
This case is so ridiculous, inane. We shouldn’t even have a discussion about it. These pro trans mutilation of children is nothing more than promoting pedophilia in this country. You never hear a peep about the children Biden regime has lost at the border. Or do they? They never mention them. How can they, after all the border is secure and closed. They know it’s a lie, but they can’t be bothered about investigating. Not one dem in charge mentions it. This is so not a subject that should be before the Supreme Court. It is a policy to morally corrupt this country. And morality can’t be ordered or legislated.
One of the most beloved singers of my youth was Karen Carpenter. She died young and wealthy because she believed she was obese, even as her weight diminished to 90lbs. Anorexia Nervosa causes its sufferers to believe obviously false things. So does gender dysphoria. These poor kids need real help, not Mengele style proceedures.
No surprise that a :”justice” who cannot (would not) define a woman spews such nonsense! It is literally CRAZY! So much for loving “the children.” Feeding them poison [for a lifetime] and cutting off perfectly healthy body parts in pursuit of a political goal!
I suggest we be “weight affirming” by supplying anorexia patients, who FEEL they are fat, doses of ex-lax or by giving razor blades to those who cut themselves because they FEEL the need to harm themselves.
Be what you want as an ADULT, but don’t inflict your wishes on an innocent child who does not reach mental maturity until ages 18-30.
“6 False Claims Backing ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ in Key Supreme Court Case”
Gee, those on the Left lied to the public on an important issue. Must be a first. [Sarcasm off now.]
Get rid of the RACE issue..these are human beings with drugs/chemicals which can and have caused horrible consequences..THINK if you can and think do you really want to injure your body, blood, mind to go through a gender change. This was NEVER a consideration until doctors decided to make money and we have always been 2 sexes not a transitory 3rd being on this earth. Transgender is like Aliens on Earth..not human beings.
Male: XY Chromosomes. Female: XX Chromosomes. Look it up.
As long as this sick agenda is a center of attention not one person is examining the performance of school system ,.substandard teachers graduating the illiterates. That is a real emergency.
A DEI hire who couldn’t even explain what a woman is during her confirmation hearings!
If I identify as “tax-free” does that mean the IRS will leave me alone? Gee. Can’t understand why Democrats lost in November….
If “transgender” mutilations are allowed in minors, where does it stop? If they are brainwashed into believing that hooks would be better than hands, can they have their hands amputated and hooks installed? If they don’t like their ears, can they just be removed? Do you let minors decide if they can drive, or drink alcohol, or travel to a foreign country unaccompanied? These demons like Brown are trying to harm children and reduce the population by any means.
Wow——the lawyer trying to argue for Transgenders certainly has the appropriate name, CHASE STRANGIO.
Very weak argument you are toast pal!
You can’t solve a problem between the ears with surgery between the legs.
The “gender affirming care” mantra that we are always accosted with is pure garbage. It’s not care and it’s not affirming. Kind of like the leftists term of “comprehensive immigration reform.” They’re not reforming anything.
If the genitals you are born with don’t identify your gender, how does removing them affirm it?
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson doesn’t even know what a woman is, by her own statement during her “confirmation” hearings. She is therefore disqualified from hearing the case.
FYI, XY chromosomes = male while XX chromosomes = female (also known as boy, man or girl, woman respectively). This is basic biology / science. What they are arguing is simply a deluded opinion.
People waving the banner for these medicines are hurting our children. Since when is a child capable of understanding the long-term effects of such medications? They are not. To forever alter their emotions, hormones, and life for the sake of “It’s the new fad,” It’s doing them a great disservice and robbing them of being who they were born to be. This gender dysphoria stuff has gotten out of hand. Adults are supposed to care for children until they are more mature. In this respect, these folks are miserably failing.
You are born either MALE OR FEMALE.
Forcing children to change their gender,by surgical means is a violation to humanity.
I was born a male and never thought that becoming a woman was a THING!
Get Real America!
This is a sick attitude!
What a mess! Stop playing God, liberals. It really sounds like child abuse to the maximum. Children of all ages fight their naturally born self until well into their twenties.
Actually,I’ve found, after talking to several homosexual people who are truthful with themselves, they went homosexual well into their mid to late twenties. None of them say they felt born in the wrong body.
Doing hormonal damage to a child at the parents’ insistence is abuse. Likewise, a child, well into their twenties doesn’t have a developed enough brain yet to make that decision either; Like taking LSD/drugs until overdosing. No rational.
“She said that it “sounds to me that ‘we want boys to be boys and we want girls to be girls,”
What’s wrong with that? Especially since a boy CAN’T be a girl and a girl CAN’T be a boy!
Sotomayor also compared it to aspirin. Someone should make her aware that aspirin is now not supposed to be given to children or teenagers because it could be dangerous? 50 years ago we had “children’s aspirin” – a lower dose and a chewable, pleasantly orange flavored tabled. However, in 1956 the FDA required that the labels include information to not give aspirin to children. Not every medical procedure is suitable for children. (I don’t believe these “trans” procedures are suitable for adults, either, but that has nothing to do with the point of this comment or the legislation being reviewed by the Supreme Court.)
I remember when tranvestites were the punchline to a bad joke now the libertards are trying to legitimize them. It is a sad state for our country.
Man-o-man. The Supreme Court justice pictured above the article doesn’t even, by her own admission, know what a woman is….and she will be there for the next 40 years!
Those who favor the transgender argument are another case of the blind leading the blind. For those who believe a child as young as 2 can determine his or her sexual orientation, they are mentally challenged. This is a simple case of good vs evil folks. Some have been so deceived that they cannot see the truth anymore. Sad. The fringe left cannot continue to control the majority especially when it comes down to plain common sense.
Speaking of false claims, I’ve noticed Karine Jean-Pierre has really been perfecting that state-of-the-art. Though she’s not mentioned in this article, it’s nonetheless spectacular to see her at work. If you haven’t yet witnessed one of her “deflection of facts” performances designed to obscure Biden debacles, DO check her out SOON… BEFORE he departs! DON’T MISS THAT SHOW!
Big Mike identifies as the ugliest first lady ever … Big Mike’s c_ck is seen through several pictures… we know that Big Mike’s butt buddy, 0’blama, is a homo born in Kenya, so now we know where all these lies and immoral propaganda comes from, two homos trying to force the rest of us to accept ???? holing as normal moral behavior… “In the Butt Bob” was a famous blooper … is not normal human intercourse…
There are many issues to select, but, if the law did NOT require the taxpayer to pay for any of it, the individual’s choice and medical willness to get paid some how, go for it.
No earthly reason for anyone to shell out their money to pay for some proceedure that is choice, unnecessary but the hollow head making the decision, and therein lies the solution (like abortion, except for rape and incest perhaps), for we did not do it and should never be obligated for one cent of payment, Want these surgeries, then YOU pay! Watch responsibility return to prevention and use some care not the open sex game.
Leave the Kids alone!!!!!!!
Striking down the Virginia law banning interracial marriage in 1967, the Supreme Court opened the door for homosexual marriage. Legalizing one type of illicit marriage leads to legalizing all types of illicit marriages.
And God created them male and female. Then satanic forces try to convince them otherwise. Nuff said!
There is one good thing about this argument. It gives parents of misbehaving children a very good threat. If you don’t behave I will take you to a state like California, New York, Oregon etc. Tell the state you are transgender. The doctors there will castrate (or perform a hysterectomy on you). That threat would scare the “Democrat” out of me. If I lived in California, Oregon, New York etc, that would scare the Republican out of me. To the censors, no profanity, no call to violence etc. CHRIS