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- cross-posted to:
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Summary
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Indiana’s law banning puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors, aligning with similar laws in 26 GOP-led states.
Plaintiffs argued the law discriminates based on sex and interferes with parental rights to direct medical treatment for their children, but the 2-1 ruling dismissed these claims.
The court stated the law applies equally to all minors and parents don’t have unrestricted rights to medical treatments.
This decision comes as the Supreme Court prepares to review a similar Tennessee case, potentially setting a nationwide precedent.
I think this one is more difficult than it sounds.
You are asking if someone should have the right to make a life long decision, before they have matured enough to make a life long decision. Tie that in with parents who can both have their child’s best interests at heart, or their own preconceived religion and views on it and there is no wide reaching decision that is best for everyone.
Saying that, they would have said no regardless of the discussions and best interests of the individual. These discussions need to be had, but
quietlypretty fucking confident they won’t happen in the next 4 years.The problem is that, in this situation, no decision IS a decision.
Up until puberty, boys and girls are quite similar. It’s puberty that causes the lifelong changes. We already know that delaying puberty doesn’t cause long-term issues. Puberty blockers are used to treat or help with other conditions. By blocking puberty, you are buying time. Time for the child to mature. Time for phycologists to assess. Time to practice the role before locking it in permanently. Time to grow, learn, and make the very decision you are talking about.
Puberty blockers are reversible - that’s not a lifelong decision. That information should have been in the article, and if we didn’t live in a dumbshit rightwing dystopia where press is owned by the conservatives and also fears retribution from the conservatives, that information would’ve been in there.
Surgery? Sure, let’s have that conversation - though I would certainly argue it’s not the state’s business what happens between a child, their parents, and their doctors, any more than it would be any other lifelong medical procedure. But it’s at least a little murky. But this decision isn’t surgery, it’s puberty blockers. Not murky. Just evil.
Republicans just want this fact suppressed. Everywhere you look, puberty blockers are presented as bad as genital surgery. They want to make it sound scary and overly artificial, like “toxic levels of hormones to go against the grain of the natural process”. This part they don’t actually say out loud but it is implied. Every outlet that fails to make clear that puberty blockers is a well established intervention for cis and trans kids alike, they are part of the TERF propaganda apparatus right enough.
They also just refuse to admit that gender-affirming surgery is almost never performed on minors. When it is performed, it’s often as a last resort to stop the kid from killing or maiming themselves.
Puberty blockers aren’t life long. Puberty is. These parents aren’t trying to give their kids sex change operations. They’re trying to give their kids a chance to make those decisions for themselves.
I think that teens and kids are going to kill themselves because of this regardless of how difficult you think it sounds. I was a trans teen and waiting until I was 18 caused me to attempt suicide. Sure, it was only once, but I could have succeeded if I hadn’t chickened out and didn’t have a therapist at the time. Maybe TMI, but these discussions need to be had, as you say.
Also, puberty blockers are reversible at any time.