On the Supreme Court’s docket this term is a case that will determine whether transgender youth will have equal rights to medical care in America. In United States v. Skrmetti, the court will decide whether a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for people under 18—one of 25 such laws across the country—is unconstitutional.
At stake in the case is the ability of transgender youth to access the care that most of the medical and psychological establishment deems essential to their well-being, free of theocratic interference.
While the case turns on a question of constitutional law, proponents of these discriminatory statutes contend the courts should follow another authority: the Bible. One amicus brief in the case, filed by the far-right American Family Association (AFA), represents lawmakers who advanced laws such as Tennessee’s through their state legislatures. In the brief’s table of authorities, which typically contains the legal precedents undergirding the litigants’ arguments, the AFA lists 11 verses from the Bible. The brief argues that rather than “read radical identity politics into our Constitution,” Americans should “gain the self-control to live with greater obedience to divine law and legitimate governing authority” because, as the Founders allegedly believed, “only a virtuous, self-disciplined people could restrain their individual passions to live by objective standards under the rule of law.” The 11 Bible verses, from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, are the authority they cite for their dubious contention that the Founders wanted Americans to comply with “divine law.”
One of the lawmakers represented on the brief, Robin Lundstrum of Arkansas, is widely hailed on the Christian right for her 2021 role in spearheading the first-in-the-nation Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. Lundstrum is an alumna of the Statesmen Academy, which is a project of the Family Policy Alliance, the political arm of the evangelical ministry Focus on the Family. The Alliance trains Christian legislators to engage in “effective, Christ-centered public service” and to draft, promote and pass “godly” laws.
Throughout the legislative process for the SAFE Act, and in her advocacy urging other state legislators to copy it, Lundstrum falsely contended that gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments were “dangerous medical experiments” amounting to “manipulation, malpractice and abuse.” Along with more than a dozen other professional medical organizations, the American Academy of Pediatrics has condemned these laws, saying they have “the sole purpose of threatening the health and well-being of transgender youth.”
One brief lists 11 verses from the Bible.
The AFA and state legislators are far from alone in urging the high court to adhere to their version of “Christian” or “biblical” values. Another amicus brief, filed by the Southern Baptist Convention, argued that, first, “biological sex is not only immutable but also part of the goodness of God’s creation. Second, that children are a blessing from the Lord. Third, that government has a responsibility to restrain evil and promote the good of its people, including the young and vulnerable.” In its brief, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops maintained that “Catholic teaching deems transgender body manipulations immoral and contrary to God’s will.” It ominously warned the court that by striking down the Tennessee law, it “will have declared that the Catholic Church is presumptively bigoted.” They are arguing that they, not children being deprived of necessary medical care, are the victims.
These advocates are counting on the court’s conservative majority to apply its reasoning in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion. There, Justice Samuel Alito relied on a false accounting of America’s “history and tradition” of banning abortion to contend there was no constitutional right to it. These advocates similarly argue that there is no history or tradition of treating—or even having—gender dysphoria. Therefore, in their view, transgender American youth do not have equal rights.
On this and so much else, they are wrong. There are Christians who believe in the full equality of transgender and nonbinary people. And in Jewish teaching, there are Talmudic discussions based on the presumption that there are six genders—not just two, as the anti-trans Christian contingent insists is God’s will.
In light of this theological diversity, these advocates are also wrong to suggest that the Founders of a new nation free of government-imposed religion would have wanted the courts to adopt their cramped, parochial positions. Regrettably, this court is more inclined to their view than to a jurisprudence protecting everyone’s freedom. And it is, frighteningly, well on its way to crafting a draconian and deeply un-American system of “authority” and “obedience” that leans heavily on one narrow reading of what one religion thinks is the truth.
Sarah Posner is a journalist and the author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind.
I wonder what would happen if all medical practitioners on the left and on the right would just follow evidence-based medicine? You might be surprised what the actual evidence would guide practitioners to do.
Agree. Author selects one ultra religious group that suggests only rigid, right wing adherents have serious questions about the medical ( including psychiatry and psychology) issues involved in current interventions in the u.s. I am a left winger and all my left wing doctor, psychiatrist and psychology friends are all frankly appalled. Let them turn 18 and then he or she can make enormously life changing decisions themselves. Transgender children should be completely accepted but wait until 18 to make life altering decisions. I understand the ins and outs of the controversy but believe me, you have no idea how many transgender supporters have come to the same conclusion as I and my friends have.
On the Trans-gender issue it is said- ‘G-d made them male and female’ these young people do need care, but its not puberty blockers! How many young girls wanted to be a tomboy until they matured?
On the abortion issue, it’s said ‘my body, my decision’ well G-d aside, [where it’s murder] if the child in the womb is a different sex, and a different DNA then its not ‘HER’ body at all!