U.S. Supreme Court v. Trans Kids’ Health Care | This Way Out Radio Episode #1943

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on pediatric gender affirming health care with a decision that lowered the bar for establishing its constitutionality and that imperils the rights of young trans patients in the 20 other states with similar laws — all despite the opposition of every major U.S. medical association. Brad Sears, Distinguished Senior Scholar of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, unpacks the ruling (interviewed by David Hunt).

And in NewsWrap: most Australian gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have sex with men will finally be able to donate blood without a three-month-celibacy requirement, funding for suicide prevention programs targeting LGBTQ young people is being eliminated by the Trump administration, a federal judge continues to block the U.S. State Department from denying the option of an “X” gender marker on U.S. passports, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance breaks the record for most blocked accounts on Bluesky in only two days after a transphobic post in support of the Supreme Court’s Skrmetti ruling, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Ava Davis and Michael LeBeau (produced by Brian DeShazor).

All this on the June 23, 2025 edition of This Way Out!

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Complete Program Summary

for the week of June 16, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court v. Trans Kids’ Health Care

NewsWrap (full transcript below): The 6-to-3 conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court substitutes political ideology for sound medical practices and supports Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming healthcare for young people, thus upholding similar laws in more than 2 dozen other states, and allowing other Republican-led U.S. states to follow suit; Australia’s Lifeblood relaxes the obstacles for gay and bisexual men donating blood, but engaging in anal sex still requires a 3-month waiting period;  the Trump administration confirms that it’s cutting federal funding for literally life-saving LGBTQ youth suicide prevention programs like those of the “Option 3” 988 suicide and crisis hotline and the separate queer-run Trevor Project hotline; a federal judge extends her temporary injunction preventing Trump’s State Department from denying an “X” gender marker on U.S. passports to nonbinary, gender non-conforming and transgender citizens; and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance bombs on Bluesky [with brief intro music by the SATB CHOIR] (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MICHAEL LEBEAU).

Feature: Transgender people got another legal gut punch when the U.S. SUPREME COURT upheld TENNESSEE’s ban on pediatric gender affirming health care. The conservative majority handed down its 6 to 3 ruling on June 18th. Their decision lowered the bar for establishing the constitutionality of Tennessee’s ban, and that imperils the rights of young trans patients in the 20 other states with similar laws — all despite the opposition of every major U.S. medical association.  The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law conducts independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. Its founding director BRAD SEARS sat down with “This Way Out’s” DAVID HUNT to unpack the Supreme Court ruling.(with intro music by ÉRIC BORCHARD and internal music by SEAN MAGWIRE).

[Williams Institute https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/]

NewsWrap

A summary of some of the news in or affecting

LGBTQ communities around the world

for the week ending June 21st, 2025 

Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,

reported this week by AVA DAVIS and MICHAEL LEBEAU,

and produced by Brian DeShazor

   A U.S. Supreme Court ruling will allow states to ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender young people. More than two dozen states can continue to enforce their bans, and the high court’s June 18th decision encourages others to follow suit. Progressive Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s written dissent harshly condemned the majority for refusing “to call a spade a spade.”

All three progressive justices opposed the six conservatives who voted to uphold Tennessee’s ban, so it was a purely ideological split. 

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case.  He rejected the plaintiffs’ constitutional “equal protection” challenge to Tennessee’s ban and threw out their demand for “heightened scrutiny” in determining its legality. The majority ruled that denying puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone treatments for trans minors does not discriminate based on transgender status or sex. Since it applies equally to both males and females, Roberts asserted that the law targets medical treatments and not personal identities.  

Writing for the minority in U.S. v. Skrmetti, Sotomayor countered that the majority opinion fails because they denied that the law “determines access to the covered medications” based on the recipient’s sex.  She warned that the decision “invites legislatures to engage in discrimination by hiding blatant sex classifications in plain sight.” In her words the ruling “authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them.”

Virtually every professional physical and mental health organization in the U.S. supports parent-approved gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors.  Advocates argue that lawmakers and now high court justices are substituting political ideology for sound medical practices.

Queer rights defenders find some hope in the fact that the high court specifically reaffirmed its 2020 Bostock ruling that protects transgender and other queer people from discrimination in the workplace.

This Way Out’s David Hunt chats with legal scholar Brad Sears about the Supreme Court ruling and its implications following NewsWrap on most of these same stations.

    Most Australian gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have sex with men will finally be able to donate blood without a three-month-celibacy requirement beginning on July 14th. The announcement came this week from Lifeblood, the blood services branch of the Australian Red Cross.

As their press release explained, “[M]ost people, including gay and bisexual men, and anyone who takes PrEP, will be able to donate plasma without a wait period, providing they meet all other eligibility criteria.  Extensive research and modeling show that there will be no impact to the safety of the plasma supply with this change. … most people in a sexual relationship of six months or more with a single partner will be eligible to donate blood.”  The statement highlights one remaining restriction: “[M]ost people with new or multiple partners will also be able to donate blood if they have not had anal sex in the last three months.”

Veteran activist and Let Us Give campaign spokesperson Rodney Croone told The Guardian, “Australian lives will be saved by … this overdue and important decision.”  Lifeblood Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jo Pink expects the change to bring in some 24,000 more individual donors per year and result in 95,000 more annual blood donations.

    Funding for suicide prevention programs targeting LGBTQ young people is being eliminated by the Trump administration.  The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline “Press 3 option” for queer youth will close on July 17th. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s own data shows that more than 1.2 million LGBTQ+ young people used 988 Option 3 from its beginning in July 2022 through February 2025. The agency’s press release explained that it was making the change “to focus on all help seekers.”

The Trevor Project has received a 30-day notice that its federal funding would be ending. The nonprofit focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth estimates that more than 1.8 million queer young people consider suicide each year, and that at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds.

The Trevor Project experienced a record-breaking 700 per cent increase in calls to their hotline on November 6th, 2024 – the day after Trump was elected to his second non-consecutive presidential term.

To Trevor Project C.E.O. Jaymes Black, “The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous -- as is the administration's choice to remove the 'T' from the acronym 'LGBTQ+' in their announcement.” Black vowed, “Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased.”

The Trevor Project’s own hotline pre-existed the federally funded 988 Option 3 line, and that effort will continue despite the termination of the government contract. Black is quick to say, “I want every LGBTQ+ young person to know that you are worthy, you are loved, and you belong – despite this heartbreaking news.  The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are here for you 24/7, just as we always have been, to help you navigate anything you might be feeling right now.”

   A federal judge is continuing to block the U.S. State Department from denying the option of an “X” gender marker on U.S. passports. This week District Judge Julia Kobick expanded a temporary injunction that she first issued in April halting enforcement of the Trump directive.  Six trans and non-binary plaintiffs want to choose the “X” gender marker on their passports. Kobick concluded that the State Department is discriminating against them on the basis of sex.  Her extension of the injunction this week also included class action status to trans people using “M” or “F,” as well as to those who want to use “X.” That now allows all trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming U.S. citizens the chance to apply for an accurate passport. According to Kobick, the State Department’s actions affected all of them “by preventing them [from] obtaining passports with a sex marker consistent with their gender identity.”  

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly derisively called Judge Kobick’s latest decision, “another attempt by a rogue judge to thwart President Trump’s agenda and push radical gender ideology that defies biological truth.”  The Trump administration already appealed the judge’s original April ruling last week.

Li Nowlin-Sohl is with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, one of the legal groups fighting for the “X” option. She applauded the judge’s latest action, calling it “a historic win in the fight against this administration’s efforts to drive transgender people out of public life.” Nowlin-Sohl added, “We encourage all class members impacted by this policy to take advantage of this injunctive relief, and we will do everything we can to block this policy permanently.”

   Finally…

[music by the SABT Choir: “Bluesky smiling at me, nothing but Bluesky do I see…”]

… U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s foray into Bluesky turned out to be as popular as his election campaign visit to a donut shop or his recent trip to Greenland. No one knows why Vance decided to join the platform favored by users who’ve

 soured on the rabidly-right-wing content of Elon Musk’s X. 

It only took two days for Vance to become the most blocked account on Bluesky in its first four years of existence.  

The “Veep” posted his support for far-right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ comments about this week’s Skrmetti ruling, particularly that trans youth healthcare relies on “questionable evidence.”  The unofficial data tracker Clearsky counted more than 110,400 users blocking Vance within the first 48 hours of that anti-trans post.

Bluesky users pulled no punches. One wrote, “Dude, w-t-f are you even doing here?” One suggested Vance should “Please return to [Donald Trump’s] Truth Social and f-off.  Nobody cares about your opinion.”

Another user wrote, “You and Trump and the rest of the clown car Cabinet in action and words have proven to be immoral, incompetent criminal, lying, despicable humans.”’

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