In the coming months, the Supreme Court will issue a ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, one of the most high-profile and consequential cases to be heard this term. Oral arguments took place on December 4, and law nerds and political pundits are already speculating what the Court might do.
For me, the outcome of this case isn't a fun logic puzzle or casual bet to make among friends and watch from afar. It feels incredibly personal and invasive. The outcome will severely impact my ability as a parent to care for my daughter, who is a transgender girl.
It could prevent me from working with doctors to get her the indispensable, lifesaving health care that she has received safely for years and which she needs to live and thrive. The fundamental freedom that most parents take for granted in raising their children and making basic decisions about what's best for their individual needs is in limbo for me and other parents raising transgender youth because of this case being brought forward.
U.S. v. Skrmetti challenges the constitutionality of a law passed in Tennessee that bans health care for transgender youth, including hormone therapy and puberty-pausing medications.
The core question of the case isn't the safety of the treatments for young people—other youth in Tennessee continue to freely be prescribed the same medications, as long as they are not transgender. The law specifically targets the availability of the treatments for families seeking to support their transgender kids and make health decisions alongside expert providers trained in this type of care.
The case does not address the question of surgery, which is already rarely performed and, in the few instances it is, is overwhelmingly undergone by non-transgender youth.
For many people, Skrmetti's outcome will have no effect on their personal lives. For me and millions of other Americans with transgender loved ones, it means everything. What's lacking behind the deluge of policies, proposals, and political debates are the faces and voices of those affected.
My transgender daughter is a senior in high school. She has just completed the daunting task of sending off college applications and aspires to follow in the footsteps of her father and grandmother by becoming a nurse. She loves to spend time with friends and family, express her creative side, and pet sit. She is a smart, witty, and very loving 17-year-old, who is thriving mainly because of the care she's received over the past few years, in close consultation with health providers that we trust.
As a parent, it was challenging to find resources on how to support my daughter when she first began to express to me that she is transgender. Had these sweeping health care bans been introduced when she was younger, I don't know where or to whom we would have turned for support. I don't know where we would be today in this unexpected journey.
Tennessee is currently in the national spotlight for what my home state, North Carolina, already went through several years ago. In 2017, North Carolina received tremendous scrutiny and backlash when our state legislature pushed forward HB 2, banning transgender people from public restrooms.
Companies, sports leagues, and entertainers saw the bill as an attempt to ostracize an already vulnerable group of people and essentially erase transgender people from public life by making it impossible to do something as basic as use a restroom. The outcry cost the state an estimated $3.76 billion in boycotts and lost revenue, and was subsequently amended. It is now lost to the dustbin of history as a clear civil rights violation.
Since then, anti-LGBTQ and anti-transgender extremists have largely shifted their strategy to propose an overwhelming number of bills attacking health care for transgender youth. In fairness, extremists haven't fully given up on pursuing baseless bathroom bans either, as seen from recent efforts targeting newly-elected U.S. Representative Sarah McBride, who made history this election cycle by becoming the first out transgender member of Congress.
Over the past few years, hundreds of bills have been proposed to restrict the ability of both transgender youth and even adults from being able to make health care decisions, often making it a felony for doctors and medical providers to offer care.
Tennessee's ban is one of approximately 24 such bans forced into law across the U.S. in the span of only a few years. The laws don't arise out of any genuine growing concern or new development.
The truth is, that transgender people have been receiving health care safely for decades. In fact, every leading health care authority in the world supports health care for transgender people, including trans youth.
There is overwhelming consensus in the medical community that health care for trans youth is mainstream care. The American Medical Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, The Pediatric Endocrine Society, and The World Health Organization are just some examples of those that have explicitly endorsed health care for trans youth.
In states where bans have passed through the legislature, including in Tennessee, testimony from those opposing such care has often been discredited—yet politicians pass the bans anyway, often along party lines. Watching my child be treated unequally in the eyes of the law, compared to her sister—who continues to have access to any health care as needed or recommended by her doctors, simply because she is not transgender—is devastating as a mother.
I can acknowledge that many people have not had the opportunity to know a trans person personally and might have concerns when they see looming news headlines about what feels like an unfamiliar topic. It's completely understandable, and that's why I'm committed to continuing to share my journey and personal story as an advocate. What I ask is that people put trust in the fact that I am similar to other parents. Like every parent, I only want the best for my children. The idea of anything less is unfathomable.
I want people to know that we are a family like yours. We're just trying to figure out life with a teenage daughter and her college-aged sister. We make decisions just like I imagine most families do. What should curfew be? What are acceptable school grades? How much is too much screen time on TV and the internet? How much Chipotle is too much? These big and small things are what I imagine most families grapple with. And just like other families, we try to make the best and most informed decisions so that, as her parents, we can raise happy, healthy, kind, and safe members of society.
The weight of watching politicians—and now the courts—interrupt and insert themselves into my family's personal decision-making is infuriating and heartbreaking. Regardless of political affiliation, I hope every parent—and every person who believes in freedom and limited government intrusion into our lives—listens to my story and can find empathy for the path my family and I are on. All of us should be able to parent as we see fit under our individual circumstances.
At the end of the day, government officials have no business planting themselves in the middle of my ability to make health care decisions alongside health care providers and experts. The Supreme Court justices should strike down Tennessee's and similar states' bans and return health care to health experts and individual families.
Katie Jenifer is a licensed attorney and mother of two children, including a transgender girl, living in North Carolina. Having gone to law school later in life in an attempt to protect her daughter after NC passed HB 2, Katie has since gone on to provide support and resources for families like hers by spearheading legal clinics across NC to help transgender people navigate the process to obtain a legal name change. She and her daughter continue to advocate for transgender youth and adults to receive the same dignity, respect, and rights as everyone else everywhere from the NC General Assembly to the White House lawn.
All views expressed are the author's own.
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