Published December 4, 2024

Today is a day most transgender people have had circled on the calendar for months. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a challenge to the state of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents.

Chase Strangio, a trans man and a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, will be arguing in front of the justices.

I have my own important to-do list today, one that has its own connection to the ACLU, and it will consume most of my energy here in the early stages of my 12-week leave from work, but I will monitor the SCOTUS news as much as possible.

In the story I linked to, Strangio says everything better than I could, especially this:

In some sense, I am speaking not only to the nine justices who will decide this case but also to a country confused, skeptical and unnecessarily fearful of trans health care.”

Having some real talk injected into the national conversation will be helpful after so much misinformation and disinformation. Mostly, it hasn’t even been a conversation, just people shouting things that aren’t based on reality.

The eventual SCOTUS decision will tell us a lot about what the next four years will be like, and maybe the rest of my life — and yours.

More to read

Here is additional reading for you, from Chris Geidner, a good person to follow for trans legal news and context. Mother Jones has more. Julia Serano has a timeline for you.

The Tennessee Holler has an email it received that’s worth reading.

Here’s more from New York Magazine. And from Dahlia Lithwick‘s always substantive and insightful podcast, Amicus. And from one of my favorite people at the ACLU.

Here’s why it could have more far-reaching implications than you may think. It probably will.

Apologies for not having links to more experts, but I am beyond running on fumes these days. I’ll add only that it’s important to remember that everyone’s story is different. I wish people could discipline themselves to keep that in mind.

Listen live beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern.

It is not surprising to me that few cisgender people seem to know what this case is about. It’s par for the course for their ignorance about almost everything about us.

Do you want to know what group of teens gets the majority of gender-affirming surgeries, in this case chest surgeries? Hint: It’s not trans teens.

I’ll remind you that anti-trans movements have their roots in the Catholic Church. Pay attention to the Catholic 6, as I call the SCOTUS majority, in this case.

I’m tired. Sending love. Oh, and here’s something new as I try to reconfigure my life. Things are going to be changing pretty quickly, and this is just a part of that. How do you like the butterfly?

♥

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