The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Skirmetti, the case over Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, on Dec. 4. Several Utah elected officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, quietly filed briefs in support of the Tennesee law last week.
Last year, the Biden administration challenged the Tennessee law, claiming it violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld Tennessee's law. The Justice Department appealed, landing the case on the Supreme Court Docket.
In 2023, the Utah Legislature rushed to pass a ban on most gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. The legislation barred doctors from prescribing hormones or puberty blockers for minors and banned surgeries on minors that are part of a sex change. Cox signed the bill almost immediately after it hit his desk.
Cox and other Republican governors signed onto a "friend of the court" brief filed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster urging the justices to uphold the Tennessee law. Others who joined the brief include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.
That filing begins very aggressively.
"Cruel." "Disgusting." "Transphobic."
That's how transgender advocates mischaracterize Governors’ decisions to sign into law bills that protect children from scientifically unsupported medical treatments with life-altering consequences. They essentially accuse Governors of acting with malice.
The document goes on to argue that such laws protect children from "experimental gender transition procedures," likening bans on puberty blockers and hormone therapy to lottery tickets and handguns.
The goal is to keep children from making life-changing decisions that they may later regret.
That’s not some radical position. States prohibit children from making certain decisions all the time. For instance, some States prohibit a person under 18 from getting a tattoo...Some States mandate that someone be at least 18 to buy a lottery ticket...And some States preclude people under 18 from purchasing a handgun.
In other words, Governors signing laws that protect minors is nothing new.
Three Utah lawmakers, Rep. Katy Hall, R-Ogden, Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, and Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, joined with Republican lawmakers from 23 states to sign on to an amicus brief filed by the American Family Association (AFA). Hall was the House sponsor of Utah's ban on gender affirming care.
The American Family Association is a fundamentalist Christian organization that opposes LGBTQ+ rights. The group, wreviously known as the National Federation for Decency, describes itself as "promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society." The Southern Poverty Law Center classified the AFA as a hate group an says the AFA is a "rabidly anti-gay" organization that owns about 200 radio stations and has a $20 million annual budget.
The AFA's amicus brief cites several passages from the Bible as well as legal precedent to argue that the Supreme Court should uphold the Tennessee ban on gender affirming care.
It's ironic that the three Utah Republicans signed onto the brief from AFA. In 2011, former AFA executive Brian Fischer said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not a Christian faith and therefore is not protected by the First Amendment.
"Mormonism is not an orthodox Christian faith. It just is not...It's very clear that the Founding Fathers did not intend to preserve automatically religious liberty for non-Christian faiths." (Brian Fischer, Focal Point radio show, September 2011).
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes joined 21 other Republican Attorneys General in a separate amicus brief gender-affirmingin support of the Tennessee law.
Support from readers makes this publication possible.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a one-time donation .
