Elliot Page asks Supreme Court to strike down bans on gender-affirming care

Actor Elliot Page and 56 other trans adults have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors. Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski and many others also signed the letter to the court.

“Some [of us] were fortunate enough to be able to begin receiving this care as minors,” their letter reads, according to The Tennessean. “For the majority, however, the barriers to accessing this care — due, fundamentally, to discrimination — were insurmountable until adulthood.”

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“[Those] who received gender-affirming health care as minors describe it as crucial to their well-being and even survival. Many who started care after adolescence suffered as a result of the delay,” the letter continues.

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In November, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court to block the law. The groups say conflicting court decisions and different state laws banning gender-affirming care for minors are “creating chaos across the country for adolescents, families, and doctors.” If the Supreme Court accepts the case, it would be the first time the court has ever heard a case on gender-affirming care.

Page has credited gender-affirming care for helping him experience joy. Since coming out as transgender in 2020, he has advocated for the right to receive this care. He has spoken out against the Texas governor’s attacks on trans youth and joined a friend-of-the-court brief in a case to overturn Arkansas’s gender-affirming care ban.

“Trans youth deserve gender-affirming care and to be able to live their true, authentic selves without fear and oppression. I stand with trans youth and their families,” Page has said.

Tennessee Republicans passed the law in February and Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed it into law in early March. The law bans Tennessee doctors from providing gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to individuals under 18 years old. It also requires any trans youth currently receiving such care to end their treatment by March 31, 2024, effectively forcing them to detransition.

Administration Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Tennessee in April, stating that the ban discriminates against trans people based on their sex, violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. Other minors have received puberty blockers and hormone therapy for decades; Tennessee’s law only forbids these treatments for trans youth.

The Department of Justice under President Joe Biden also filed a lawsuit against the ban. A federal judge issued an injunction to stop the law from going into effect. However, in September the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to overturn the injunction.

“No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement, commenting on the Biden administration’s lawsuit. “The right to consider your health and medically-approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide.”