Tennessee’s S.B. 1 Law is a Direct Attack on Trans-Youth
The state of Tennessee was sued by the Biden Administration on April 26 due to its introduction of the S.B. 1 law. The bill was passed in early March and “prohibits a healthcare provider from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
Going into effect in July, the bill would ban all minors within the state from receiving gender-affirming care and would obligate all youth that is already in the process of transitioning to de-transition by March of 2024. Not only would this be detrimental to the mental health of questioning youth and minors that are in the process of receiving gender-affirming care, but it would also invalidate and encroach on the lives of children that have already transitioned and comfortably express their chosen identity on a daily basis.
However, some procedures prohibited by the bill will remain accessible for cisgender and intersex children invalidating the rights of trans youth even further. For example, puberty blockers can prevent physical changes within a child affirming their gender while giving them more time to explore their identity.
The blockers can also be used to treat life-threatening conditions such as prostate cancer, breast cancer, and endometriosis, and will continue to be available for those purposes just not for children seeking gender-affirming care. Overall, it would “prohibit transgender children from receiving health care that their medical providers and their parents have determined to be medically necessary” increasing rates of gender dysphoria amongst children even more.
S.B.1 has overtly contradistinguished Tennessee’s minors and does the exact opposite of teaching and embracing equality amongst all. It’s a direct attack on youth within an influential stage of their lives and paves an even darker path for the U.S. and the inauguration of new laws within other red states.
The Department of Justice quoted Republican Representative Paul Sherrell stating, “If you don’t know what you are—a boy or girl, male or female—just go in the bathroom and take your clothes off and look in the mirror, and you’ll find out.”
This bigoted way of thinking emphasizes the Republican party’s utter lack of acceptance towards minors seeking gender-affirming care and is highly discriminatory, to say the least.
In the end, the introduction of this bill does absolutely nothing for the state of Tennessee except attack innocent children discovering their own identity. It just creates yet another obstacle for queer youth just trying to find their place in this convoluted country.
