The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on April 26 challenging Tennessee’s newly-enacted law banning transgender medical procedures for children, arguing that the legislation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
In a press release, the DOJ said it also asked the court to issue an immediate order to stop the law-Senate Bill 1, or SB 1-from going into effect on its scheduled date of July 1.
SB 1 (pdf) was signed into law by Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee on March 2 and bans health providers from performing medical procedures on minors for the purpose of either “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or “treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”
The law also bans health care providers from prescribing hormone treatments and puberty blockers to aid in gender transition. Read more…
