Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said the legal challenge to Tennessee’s law that bans “gender-affirming care” on minors is not only an issue regarding a state’s interest to protect children, but also a state’s rights issue under the Tenth Amendment.
The Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act, which was signed into law in March 2023 by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, forbids healthcare providers from performing or administering to underage children medical procedures or treatments for the purposes of enabling the child to identify with the opposite gender.
“Gender-affirming care” is identified in the law as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgeries.
The state law was initially challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its legal partners before the U.S. Department of Justice also filed a legal challenge to the law, arguing it is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court will review a previous ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in September, which reversed a district court’s preliminary injunction in the case and allowed the law to remain in effect.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti for Wednesday, December 4.
Johnson, who was an original sponsor of the Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act, described how the issue at hand in front of the Supreme Court is a “state’s rights” issue as much as the issue regarding a state’s interest to protect children on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Not only do I believe passionately about the policy here and we have a compelling interest in the state to protect children, but this is also very much a state’s rights issue. A Tenth Amendment issue that states should have the right to pass laws like this to protect children,” Johnson explained. “So this is a very important case.”
In regards to the DOJ’s argument that the state law violates the Equal Protection Clause, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has argued that the law includes no sex classification and instead “draws a line between minors seeking drugs for gender transition and minors seeking drugs for other medical purposes,” adding that the law “does not classify based on transgender status.”
Johnson agreed with Skrmetti’s assessment, saying, “This ban is not targeting any one group of people. It applies to all minors who would be seeking any type of sex transition treatment.”
Another argument that may be used by the DOJ against the law is the “medically necessary” classification of “gender-affirming care” for minors, which Johnson simply classified as “irreparable changes to a child’s body.”
“They utilize the term ‘gender-affirming care.’ I’m not a medical professional, but I think any reasonable person would say that removing body parts of a 14 year old boy or girl because they are suffering from a psychological condition which is referred to as gender dysphoria is not care. These surgeries cannot be undone…We shouldn’t be making decisions about irreparable changes to a child’s body,” Johnson said.
Johnson went on to stress that the law does not restrict individuals 18-years old and older from accessing “gender-affirming care” when they are recognized as an adult by the state of Tennessee.
“If you’re an adult, and you wish to go have this done, that’s your business, but when you’re a child, the state has a compelling interest to protect these children,” Johnson said.
Johnson said if a child is suffering from a psychological condition like gender dysphoria, that child should have access to psychological care instead of going through treatments to physically change their bodies.
“It doesn’t mean that we don’t love these kids. We want them to get care. They need psychological care, and we need to provide that. We need to love these kids and support them and get them through this difficult time in their life. I want to be very clear about that, but that’s far different than doing something that cannot be undone when you’re 25 or 30 and you were born as a female and you had your body irreparably changed and now you cannot bear children. That cannot be undone,” Johnson explained.
“We need to press the pause button on these surgeries and prescribing these very harmful drugs until someone is an adult and they can make a decision at that time,” Johnson added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “TN Sen Jack Johnson” by TN Sen Jack Johnson.
