Tennessee’s ban on healthcare for transgender youth to take effect

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has accepted a request by Tennessee’s attorney general to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

The law, originally set to take effect on July 1, will now take effect immediately.

In June 2023, a federal district court granted a request for a preliminary injunction against Public Chapter No. 1, in a lawsuit.

The law bans medical providers from giving gender-affirming health treatment to transgender youth and requires trans youth who are presently getting such care to discontinue it within nine months of the bill’s implementation date of July 1, 2023—by March 31, 2024.

This is the first federal court to allow a ban on gender-affirming care to go into effect, following unanimous rulings in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, and Kentucky.

In June 2023, a federal court in Arkansas overturned the state’s ban on gender-affirming care, declaring that it violated the Equal Protection Clause, Due Process Clauses, and First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The ACLU of Tennessee, the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP issued the following joint statement:

Both OUTMemphis and Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi have also released statements:

OUTMemphis says the fight for the LGBTQIA community is not over and the organization is committed to making a change to allow everyone to live free and comfortably.

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