This Wednesday, a federal court temporarily blocked Tennessee’s law prohibiting the provision of gender-confirming care to children in Tennessee. Senate Bill 1 forbade medical professionals from “conducting a medical procedure on minors or an operation if the goal of the same is to allow the minor to live as or identify with a putative identity that isn’t compatible with their sex,” according to the law that was signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in March and is scheduled to go into effect in July.
It states that minors receiving care are exempt from liability, but that parents of minors may be held accountable if the guardian gave their consent to the procedure that authorized the violation of the said minor on their behalf.
The Decision Allows Tennessee To Outlaw Gender Transformation Via Surgery
In his decision on Wednesday, US.D Judge E. Richardson enjoined the state from enforcing a restriction on gender-affirming medications such as hormone therapy and puberty inhibitors. However, the decision permitted Tennessee to outlaw surgical gender transformation. “The Court is aware that today’s ruling will probably add fuel to the already raging debate over transgender people’s rights in the society on one side, and the states’ countervailing authority to regulate certain behaviors inside their boundaries and to utilize that authority to protect on the other.
The judge said that If Tennessee wants to control access to a few medical treatments, it needs to do the same in a way that doesn’t violate the rights granted by the constitution of the US, which, of course, supersedes all other laws the nation.
The ACLU applauded the decision on Wednesday. According to Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s HIV Projects & LGBT it had been a significant win not only for those who identify as transgender but also their kin. According to Block, these laws are being categorically rejected across the nation as being illegal, overtly discriminatory, and dangerous to the same youngsters they are intended to safeguard.
