Skrmetti’s Outcome and Obergefell’s Legacy Loom Over Pride Month
Leading Off: The outcome in a Supreme Court case challenging gender care bans will land a decade after a marriage ruling that Republicans are targeting with new fervor.
by Assigned Media
Pride Month begins with the gravest uncertainties in a decade. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether it will uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for people under 18, a ruling that could have wide and lasting national consequences.
The decision will land at a moment that polling shows Republican support for same-sex marriage has dropped to its lowest level since the court enshrined the equal right to marry in a landmark 2015 ruling.
Tennessee’s ban on gender care, enacted by its state legislature in 2023, was challenged by trans teenagers and their families in a case that came to be known as U.S. v Skrmetti. The plaintiffs contend the ban violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection since Tennessee law permits the same medical treatment for cis minors. It’s the first test of whether 14th Amendment protections apply to gender-affirming care.
Major medical associations in the United States have opposed such broad statewide bans and have consistently found gender-affirming care to be safe and beneficial. So have numerous independent reviews, including one that was completed just last month in Utah.
During oral arguments last December, the court’s conservative majority raised skeptical questions about the plaintiff’s challenge, some analysts said, although a leading law reporter cautioned against premature conclusions in an interview with Assigned Media at the time.
A team of journalists from Assigned Media reported on the case from Washington last December. Anticipating a momentous moment, trans people, lawyers prominent among them, lined up in the bitter cold for hours for a chance to secure one the precious 50 public seats to hear the arguments.
Trans people, families and allies rallied outside as well. Among them was Thom Rowell of Connecticut, who came to support his transgender son Dean, 15, who he said receives affirming care. “It has saved his life. And I firmly believe it is lifesaving for trans kids everywhere.”
The Tennessee ruling will come a full decade after queer people celebrated the court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, but a Gallup poll published late last week pointed to troubling partisan shifts in Americans’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage.
While support for same-sex marriage has held steady at 68 percent among all Americans, Gallup found, the partisan gap is widening. Support among Republicans has dropped 14 points in just three years, falling to 41 percent, its lowest level since the Obergefell ruling. The gap in support between Republicans and Democrats, 47 points, is the largest it has been.
Republican legislators in at least nine states have introduced measures to either undercut the same-sex marriage rights enshrined in Obergefell or to directly overturn it, an NBC News analysis found. Two states, North Dakota and Idaho, adopted resolutions calling on the high court to re-examine the decade-old ruling.
The international governing body for amateur boxing announced what it called “mandatory sex testing” for athletes who want to participate in its events, singling out the Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif in its statement.
Khelif, an Algerian and veteran women’s boxer, has been targeted with a torrent of hate based on biased and false claims from prominent “gender critical” activists. Last week, the Fox personality and anti-trans campaigner Riley Gaines took to X to wage another direct salvo, misgendering the athlete multiple times.