Land of the Free (Offer Not Valid in Tennessee)
SCOTUS to Trans Kids: You Have the Right to Remain Cis
So the Supreme Court just dropped one of the most easily predictable 6-3 rulings of its term, a ruling so cruel, so dishonest, and so medically ignorant, it could warm the hearts of anyone who feels they missed out on “separate but equal.”
The Six Supremes — aka the Federalist Society's Handmaid’s Tale cover band — just gave America a brand new gift for Pride Month: upholding a Tennessee law to block gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
That’s right. The Supreme Court just ruled that states can ban gender-affirming care for trans kids, because apparently they don’t have it hard enough; and the Equal Protection Clause really works better as more of a decorative throw pillow.
You’ll learn a lot about how seriously Americans take the words “freedom” and “liberty” by how they think transgender folks should be made to live.
And you’ll learn a lot about how seriously they oppose “big government” when they have zero problems with said government coming between a family and their doctor.
They don’t care about the kids.
The 6-3 decision, with all of the court’s conservatives in the majority, ruled that the law doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause and lowered the level of scrutiny courts should use when evaluating all the inevitable copycat bans. In other words, the Court ruled that government banning transgender kids from getting the same medical care in some states that other trans kids get to access in other states isn’t discrimination.
Soulless aristocrat & human sweater vest Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that this law merely regulates “age and medical purpose.” Right. Like segregation just regulated “transportation preferences.”
And they’re not even subtle about it anymore. States can still prescribe puberty blockers and hormones… as long as it’s to force a child to stay the gender they were assigned at birth. So you can medically manipulate a child’s hormones, just not in a way that affirms their identity — only if it conforms them.
What’s next? Banning insulin for diabetics, but only if they want to use it to treat diabetes?
You want to know how bad this ruling is? Justice Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench, which is the SCOTUS equivalent of flipping a table and yelling, “Y’all are out of your damn minds.”
She said the court is “abandoning trans youth.” And she’s right. But not just abandoning them — they’re stripping them down, painting a target on their back, and letting them know that America’s not here to protect their liberty.
The conservative justices didn’t even try to hide the politics here. They looked at the evidence, saw that the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association all support gender-affirming care for transgender individuals, and said “Yes; but you see, we’ve all waited a long time to make these kids’ lives harder.”
And let’s talk about the logic of this next-level fascist Sudoku.
“We’re not banning gender-affirming care,” they essentially said. “We’re just making it illegal to affirm gender.”
Which is like saying “We didn’t ban food. We just banned eating if you’re hungry.”
This ruling COULD literally kill kids. That’s not satire; it’s a cold, clinical outcome. Trans kids in states like Tennessee, Florida, and Texas — where they already have to cross three state lines just to feel safe at a CVS — will now be completely cut off from care.
The American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledges the medical necessity of this kind of care for improving the physical and mental health of transgender people.
But six robed hacks — 5 of whom were appointed by electoral college presidents who got the White House despite the majority voting against them - decided they know more about medical care than pediatric endocrinologists, and families who just want their kids to live and feel happier.
These are the same justices who said three years ago in Dobbs, “We’re not banning abortion, we’re just letting states do it.” Now they’ve copied and pasted that logic onto trans kids.
This isn’t about constitutional interpretation — this is a fake Christian ideological hit job in legal drag. And like every generation of cowards before them, they hide their cruelty behind “states’ rights” — a phrase that’s generally meant: “We need a loophole to discriminate.”
So here’s our American progress report:
You can’t get an abortion.
You can’t get gender-affirming care.
You can’t teach Black history.
You can’t protest what Ice is doing.
You’d better not protest what Netanyahu is doing
You can’t have due process
But hey — congrats to all the corporations banning Juneteenth as a company holiday.
But please remember: every new American generation finds a new vulnerable marginalized minority they can persecute - and feel morally righteous about it. America’s done this to black folks, natives, Chinese immigrants, Irish Immigrants, Italian immigrants, Jewish refugees, people with AIDS.
In this century we’ve seen this part of America focus its spiritually fervent hatred on three other notable groups - Muslims, undocumented immigrants, and now trans kids.
It’s always the same hate — just a different group on the receiving end.
But….the bigots always lose. Eventually.
The Supreme Court once upheld Japanese internment. They upheld bans on interracial marriage. They upheld segregation.History doesn’t forget these rulings — it condemns them. And it will condemn this one, too.
Future generations of young Americans won’t be as frightened of trans people as 2025’s adults tend to be. If you don’t believe me, look at all the young people who don’t understand 20th century homophobia.
This ruling will age about as well as Donald Trump’s wedding vows; because the justices who ruled it weren’t writing law, they were carving their names into the wrong side of history. Again.
For the trans kids: whether politicians are brave enough to stand up for you or not, just remember - you are not alone. You are not broken.
And those six justices who failed you today? They are.