Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver says Circuit Court Judge Craig Carter took notice of three appeals court cases that overturned lower court decisions and ruled that so-called gender-affirming treatment for minors involves procedures that science has not settled.
"The evidence from trial showed that the medical ethics of gender dysphoria treatment for children and adolescents are entirely unsettled," Judge Carter wrote. "Nonetheless, gender clinics discuss and request payment for these drugs and surgeries as if they do wholly change sex. Worse, patients and families might expect a full sex change. The adolescent's body is permanently, but not fully, changed."
"The judge ruled that questionable medical interventions are not a right," Staver summarizes. "In light of the medical community's lack of total consensus on this issue in treating this gender confusion, he noted that it is not the court's role to override the legislators and the will of the people."
The attorney and former pastor says rushing this sort of medical intervention at such a young age causes significant and lasting harm to children, and that is why states have a right, an interest, and a duty to protect them.
"They have a right to regulate prescribed medications. They've always had that right," notes Staver. "Not anyone can give certain medications; you have to have a medical license. That's never been the right of a parent just to simply give a medication to their child no matter what it is."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has begun reviewing the issue of state bans on transgender drugs and procedures. A decision in the appeal challenging Tennessee's law is expected by June 2025 and could determine whether all such state laws in the nation can be enforced.
