The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Tennessee over its law barring doctors from providing sex changes to minors.
Senate Bill 1, which Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed into law in March, bars healthcare providers from providing cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and sex change surgeries for minors. The bill came after the Daily Wire reported that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) was providing cross-sex hormones to children as young as 13.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal are among those suing to stop the law, according to a court filing. (RELATED: Women’s Health Grant To Be Spent Researching Testicle Removal On 18-Year-Olds)
“In so doing, the Health Care Ban denies adolescents medically necessary treatment and prevents parents from exercising their fundamental rights to obtain medically necessary care for their adolescent children,” the lawsuit reads. “It further prohibits doctors from treating their patients in accordance with well-established standards of care and subjects doctors to potential civil liability and regulatory discipline.”
Doctors who perform sex change operations on minors could face a $25,000 fine under the law.
BREAKING: We just filed our lawsuit against Tennessee for their discriminatory ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Tennessee, we’ll see you in court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 20, 2023
“If the Health Care Ban goes into effect, it will have devastating consequences for transgender youth and their families in Tennessee. Transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria will be unable to obtain medical care that those who understand their medical needs—their doctors and parents—agree is medically necessary.”
Several of the plaintiffs are families of transgender identified youth who would have to halt their sex changes under the law. Plaintiffs also include a doctor who provides sex changes in Tennessee.
The lawsuit points to guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an organization which recently did away with all age restrictions on guidance for sex changes. WPATH also recognizes the gender identity “eunuch” as of 2022, recommending orchiectomies, the removal of testicles, to “treat” the condition. WPATH used information from the Eunuch Archive in setting these standards of care, which the medical organization itself recognized as containing stories of child castration, pedophilia and sexual torture.