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USA Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Supreme Court upholds state ban on transgender minors using puberty blockers, hormone therapy
Supreme Court upholds state ban on transgender minors using puberty blockers, hormone therapy In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor said the Supreme Court 'abandons transgender children and their families to political whims." Show Caption Hide Caption Families speak out for transgender youth at Supreme Court Families of transgender youth tells how their lives could change if Supreme Court bans gender-affirming care. WASHINGTON − An ideologically divided Supreme Court on June 18 upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a major setback for transgender Americans who have increasingly become targets of conservative states and the Trump administration. The court's six conservative justices upheld the ban and the three liberals dissented. The decision − one of the court's biggest this year − came about five years after the court ruled that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace. But in this case, the court said that preventing minors from using puberty blockers and hormone therapy does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. "Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court retreated 'from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most,' and 'abandons transgender children and their families to political whims.' Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the decision a "landmark defense of America's children." "A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee's elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand," he said in a statement. Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented the Tennessee families challenging the law, called the decision is a 'painful setback.' But Strangio, who was the first openly transgender person to argue before the court, noted the opinion didn't revisit past decisions protecting transgender people from discrimination. 'We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person,' Strangio said in a statement. The Biden administration and the Tennessee families that challenged the law argued it discriminated against transgender people because a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male may be given testosterone to treat delayed puberty. But a teenager assigned female at birth who wants testosterone to treat gender dysphoria may not have it. Tennessee countered that the treatments have different risks and benefits when used by transgender youth, who need to be protected from life-altering consequences. The Supreme Court agreed, saying the law is removing one set of diagnoses − gender dysphoria − from the range of treatable conditions, not excluding people from treatment because they're transgender. After the case was argued in December, the Justice Department under President Donald Trump told the court it was no longer challenging Tennessee's law. Trump made opposition to transgender rights a central theme of his campaign. The issue, a major flashpoint in the culture wars, gained prominence with startling speed, despite the tiny – though increasing – fraction of Americans who are transgender. Since 2022, the number of states taking steps to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors grew from four to about half. States have also taken steps to restrict the bathrooms transgender students can use, what sports teams they can join. and whether they can change the sex designation on their birth certificates. When families with transgender children challenged bans on gender-affirming care, district courts largely sided with them and blocked enforcement. But three appeals courts upheld the laws, including the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Tennessee's law was the first to reach the Supreme Court. More: Transgender lawyer makes history, takes case on puberty blockers and hormone therapy to Supreme Court During the December oral arguments, several of the conservative justices voiced support for taking a similar approach to what the court did when it overturned Roe v. Wade, finding there's no constitutional barrier to the issue at hand and leaving it up to state and federal legislatures to decide. 'My understanding is the Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor,' Chief Justice John Roberts said during December's debate. The court's liberal justices had argued that the court can't ignore constitutional protections, particularly for the vulnerable. 'That's a question for the court,' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said. Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that the law 'plainly discriminates on the basis of sex,' tying it to the 2020 decision barring employment discrimination for transgender people. Roberts responded that the court didn't decide in 2020 whether the reasoning could be applied outside of the civil rights law at issue in that case. And the court didn't need to now, he said, because neither the teen's sex nor transgender status is the reason he can't get puberty blockers under Tennessee's law. Gender-affirming care for minors is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. But the court's conservative justices focused more on the fact that some European countries have tightened restrictions on the treatments. England's National Health Service, for example, stopped prescribing the drugs outside of clinical trials after a review concluded more data is needed to help doctors and their patients make informed decisions. Tennessee concluded that there's an ongoing debate among medical experts about the risks and benefits of the treatments, Roberts wrote. "Recent developments," he said, "only underscore the need for legislative flexibility in this area." The case is U.S. v. Skrmetti.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
Supreme Court ruling on transgender care for minors endorses ‘popular hostility,' undermines parental rights, advocates say
Strangio stressed that the Supreme Court left intact other rulings that 'discrimination against transgender people' is unlawful. Advertisement 'We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve,' Strangio said. Separately, two legal advocates for transgender rights said the majority decision intruded on parental rights and bowed to 'popular hostility' toward transgender people. In a statement, Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights for GLAD Law, and Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said the high court's 6-3 ruling will harm youth and the families who support them. ' The Court today failed to do its job,' Levi said. 'When the political system breaks down and legislatures bow to popular hostility, the judiciary must be the Constitution's backbone.' Advertisement Levi added that the majority of justices 'chose to look away, abandoning both vulnerable children and the parents who love them. No parent should be forced to watch their child suffer while proven medical care sits beyond their reach because of politics.' Minter said that the decision ran contrary to the court's own precedent and will cause teens and their families 'real harm' in the near future. 'The Court's ruling abandons transgender youth and their families to political attacks,' Minter said. 'It ignored clear discrimination and disregarded its own legal precedent by letting lawmakers target young people for being transgender. Healthcare decisions belong with families, not politicians.' The legal specialists said that the They In a statement, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said the majority on the court had wrongly blocked appropriate medical care being provided to youth with gender dysphoria. 'This ruling denies trans youth access to medically necessary treatment and ignores overwhelming evidence of its life-saving benefits, as well as the medical judgment of doctors and parents,' Campbell said. 'In the face of this cruel setback, I stand with trans youth and their families and remain committed to defending their rights and well-being in Massachusetts and across the country.' This is a developing story and will be updated. Advertisement John R. Ellement can be reached at
San Francisco Chronicle
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court decision looms over 49th Frameline LGBTQ+ film festival
As Frameline's 49th film festival nears, LGBTQ+ rights are under assault from federal and state governments, and drastic cuts in funding are affecting all arts and LGBTQ+ organizations. It's a scary time, but the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, the world's largest and longest-running film festival of its kind, is defiant. 'We need to really lay the groundwork out there,' Frameline Executive Director Allegra Madsen told the Chronicle ahead of the festival, which runs Wednesday, June 18, through June 28. 'We need to stand up for one another inside the community and also we need to look outside the community for effective allyship, one that is actually rooted in supporting the queer community.' Madsen and her team have programmed a proactive slate of issue-oriented films for the event that sends a clear message: The queer community isn't going anywhere. No film embodies that spirit more than ' Heightened Scrutiny,' Sam Feder's ripped-from-the-headlines documentary about American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chase Strangio, the first out transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court. A recipient of Frameline's 2025 Completion Fund grant, the film is scheduled to make its California premiere in the festival's traditional 'First Friday' slot on June 20, with a screening at American Conservatory Theater's 1,000-seat Toni Rembe Theater, followed by a party at Charmaine's, the Proper Hotel's rooftop bar on Market Street. Produced by former San Francisco resident Amy Scholder, 'Heightened Scrutiny' follows Strangio during his involvement in United States v. Skrmetti, in which he is fighting to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Strangio argued the case before the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, and audio of the arguments (SCOTUS does not allow cameras) is used in the film, which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. To add to the drama, the high court's decision is expected to be handed down during Frameline. 'We felt this urgency to get the film out while the decision was being deliberated so that the public could really understand what the stakes are and hopefully understand the kind of urgency of coalition and, regardless of the outcome, just what this will mean,' Scholder said. 'Nine human beings at the Supreme Court are deciding the fate of the civil rights of a community and the beginning of, or the continuation of, the chipping away of bodily autonomy for all Americans. Whatever the decision is, we set out to show how we got here, what contributed to this moment.' Feder, who spoke to the Chronicle along with Scholder during a video interview, first met Strangio while making his documentary ' Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen ' (2020), about Hollywood's depiction of transgender people. 'The ways in which he spoke about the connection to the rise of visibility and the rise of social and legislative violence really struck me because that was the reason I made that film,' Feder said. 'I wanted people to start preparing for the inevitable backlash.' That backlash has arrived, and with intensity. Not just from the government, but, as 'Heightened Scrutiny' alleges, the mainstream press. Strangio explains in the documentary how headlines about trans issues — both in the New York Times and in other newspapers — subtly changed over a relatively short time leading up to the case. At issue in the Supreme Court case and in media coverage is the use of hormone and puberty blockers, which have been prescribed to children since the 1980s for various conditions that have nothing to do with gender changes, such as early onset puberty. 'This is a framing issue,' Feder said. 'This is not about unfairness or a threat. If you want to make things fair based on blood tests and hormone tests, you should be doing that across the board, right? Not just for this one class of people. So this is about bigotry. So how we frame these stories creates a very specific narrative that people run with, and that's what I wish the press would do better.' Frameline felt 'Heightened Scrutiny' was so important that it introduced a pay-it-forward initiative to provide free tickets to transgender and nonbinary attendees (details at The screening, which Feder and Scholder plan to attend, will be preceded by a performance by the New Voices Bay Area TIGQ (Transgender, Intersex, Genderqueer) Choir. 'The outcome of this case is going to affect all Americans,' Feder said. 'People think this is just about a small community that they don't really care about, and they want to talk about other things. But we're seeing the beginnings of coalition building about reproductive rights and trans rights and immigrant rights. This is all about bodily autonomy, what we have the right to do, what our right is to move through space.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Local tourism leaders plan for 'unpredictable' summer season
With the official start of the 2025 tourism season just weeks away, local industry leaders and city officials are keeping a wary eye on what the summer season will hold for the Cataract City. A Wednesday afternoon summit with Mayor Robert Restaino, Destination Niagara USA President & CEO John Percy and members of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association seemed to yield equal measures of concern and confidence. 'We've seen some reduction in (local) cross-border traffic,' Restaino said. 'We met to make sure our (local tourism) industry is nimble enough to react to it.' But the mayor cautioned that local governments 'have very little ability to impact' tourism. The industry has been hit by headwinds created by dramatic changes in the United States' policies on immigration, travel and tariffs. In particular, a trade war and suggestions by President Donald Trump that the U.S. should simply annex Canada as a 51st state have plunged the relationship between the two neighbors into a deep freeze. Mass deportations and other aggressive law enforcement actions against immigrants have also led many nations to issue advisories cautioning against travel to the U.S. Frank Strangio, whose family operates multiple hotel properties in the Falls, said his sites have seen lower occupancy rates in the run-up to the Memorial Day kick-off of the tourist season. He said booking projections suggest those occupancy declines could continue into the summer, fueled by an absence of both Canadian and international travelers. 'We're seeing a downturn in international (travelers),' Strangio said. 'I don't know if maybe they don't feel welcome here. But that is the wrong message. Come and stay. That's what makes America great. We want to see people from all over the world.' Restaino told the association members that city officials are 'exploring doing something with the occupancy tax. The 6% surcharge on what travelers pay for hotel and motel rooms is used to fund tourism-related expenses, including the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's trolley service and the Discover Niagara Shuttle. The mayor said he hoped a 'holiday' on the occupancy tax collections might make room rates more affordable. 'We're not looking at a permanent reduction,' Restaino said. 'We're trying to protect the trolley and the shuttle (both services receive 1% of the occupancy tax revenues).' Strangio said he believes that with the uncertainty of the upcoming tourist season, the region's tourism promotion efforts shouldn't be put at risk. He advocated for continued support for local marketing efforts. 'We need to keep spending on marketing,' Strangio said. 'When we spend less, we make less.' Percy, a long-time tourism industry leader, agreed with Strangio and said Destination Niagara USA is looking to remain aggressive in its advertising and promotions. He said his agency was 'paying attention and has its finger on the pulse' of the decline in Canadian and international travel to the Falls. But he also said Niagara USA was ready to 'pivot' its message to a 'domestic audience of travelers' who live from 3 to 5 hours from the Falls. 'We've always fared well (in tough economies) and we feel we will again this time,' Percy said. 'We don't pull back. We forge ahead.'
ABC News
01-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Why Gen Z and millennial voters could deliver unexpected election results
They're disillusioned, resentful and many suspect the system is rigged against them. For the first time, Gen Z and millennial voters outnumber baby boomers at the federal election — and most of them aren't reaching the same milestones as their parents. More than 7 million Australians Political analysts say their grievances could deliver unexpected results in marginal seats. A widening wealth gap Paul Strangio, emeritus professor in politics at Monash University, said generational inequality could be driving "unpredictable" voting patterns among Gen Zs and millennials. "They're not reaching the sort of milestones that previous generations did, such as home ownership, marrying [and] having children," Dr Strangio said. "Those things used to predispose people to becoming more conservative in their outlook." Stay updated: Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on Australia's birth rate recently Photo shows A woman holds a black dog overlooking the beach. To understand why 30-somethings feel like they're struggling financially, the ABC analysed five factors — housing, healthcare, debt, tax, and income. UNSW economics professor Richard Holden said while many young voters earn higher incomes today than their parents did at their age, it was now much harder to build wealth through property ownership. "I'm not sure there's rising intergenerational income inequality, but there's a good case to worry about wealth inequality," he said. "And I'd say that aspect is getting worse." Many young Australians say they can't compete with older buyers at auctions. ( ABC News: Michael Coggan ) Tim Harcourt, an economist at the University of Technology Sydney, agreed the wealth disparity between generations was becoming increasingly acute. "It's really starting to bite now as the Baby Boomers retire into their defined benefits superannuation schemes and extra properties," he said. "I think housing is a red button issue … and that's where the youth reaction will be really important." Young voters 'a ticking time bomb' Dr Strangio said voters typically became more conservative as they grew older, but now they're skewing further to the left and feeling increasingly dissatisfied with the major parties. "Young voters are a ticking time bomb," he said. "They're facing real wage declines, high costs for education, difficulty in getting into the housing market and yet so far I think they've been quiet tolerant." Photo shows A smiling, dark-haired young woman in flared jeans stands in bare feet on a house veranda. Young people in some of Australia's most expensive regional towns are disappointed with both major parties, as experts warn their policies are likely to push house prices up even further. But he warned their patience wouldn't last forever. "When we look overseas to places like Trump's America, young men are being attracted to aggressive, populist policies because of inequalities," he said. "I think it's a warning that we do need to address those things with some urgency because we don't want to see those sorts of trends." Professor Harcourt said while the youth vote typically skewed to the left in inner-city electorates, voting patterns would be harder to predict among tradies or factory workers in rural areas. "It's quite unpredictable in the outer suburbs where there's housing stress and population stress, where there is a view that the infrastructure is not keeping up with the population growth," he said. Read more about the federal election: Want even more? Here's where you can find all our 2025 Climate change remains a concern Aside from housing affordability and the cost of living, a new YouGov poll suggests young voters remain deeply concerned about the impacts of climate change. Earlier this year, Australians' social media accounts lit up with videos of A kayaker navigating floodwaters in Lockyer Valley in south-east Queensland. ( Supplied: Michelle Badke ) According to the YouGov poll, four-in-five young voters said climate change would influence their vote in the federal election. The poll of 1,622 adult Australian voters, commissioned by Solutions for Climate Australia, found 79 per cent of Gen Zs and 73 per cent of millennials said climate change was an important part of their decision-making at the polling booth. About 67 per cent of undecided voters also said climate change was important in determining their vote. Australian Youth Climate Coalition national director Grace Vegesana said the issue wasn't going away. Grace Vegesana says young people will continue to prioritise climate action. ( Supplied: Grace Vegesana ) "I think the parties who ignore young people will pay the price at the ballot box," she said. "Young people under 40 do deeply care about the climate crisis and if they're not seeing solutions … they will vote accordingly." She said many young voters reported feeling left behind this election. "We are going to see a shift away from the major parties as people realise [we] want to see ambition, and not just be handed baseline policies that continue business as usual," she said. Loading Having trouble seeing this form? Try
