Brady Supports Trans Youth, Warns of Heightened Risk of Firearm Suicide

United States v. Skrmetti, No. 23-477, Supreme Court of the United States

Date Filed: September 3, 2024

Topic: Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors

Case Summary: Tennessee law prohibits healthcare providers from offering gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth even when individual patients, their parents, and their healthcare providers agree that such care is medically necessary. Three Tennessee families of transgender children sued Tennessee, arguing that the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which ensures equal protection under the law. The plaintiffs argue that the law makes medical treatments that are typically available to cisgender youth inaccessible to transgender youth, therefore violating the Fourteenth Amendment by treating the two groups differently. 

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction finding the law likely unconstitutional and blocking enforcement of it during the litigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit disagreed, reversing the lower court’s decision. The plaintiffs petitioned for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States intervened, joining the case to challenge the validity of the state law, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Brady’s Amicus Brief: Brady’s brief demonstrates that banning gender affirming medical care places transgender youth at a heightened risk of harm from gun violence. Studies show that transgender individuals are four times more likely to be victims of violence than their cisgender counterparts. Transgender youth also experience higher rates of violence: they are 29% more likely to be threatened or injured with a gun at school than cisgender classmates. The brief underscores that withholding access to affirmational care not only inhibits this population’s ability to live authentically in the world, but increases the likelihood that they will be confronted with violence, including gun violence. 

Brady’s brief also explains that denying transgender youth access to gender-affirming care places them at a higher risk of suffering self-inflicted harm or dying by firearm suicide. A 2019 survey found that a transgender minor was four times more likely on an annual basis to not only think of suicide, but to act on those thoughts. Brady’s brief reminds the Court that firearms are the most lethal method of suicide, and that a ban on healthcare such as the one in Tennessee will have a detrimental, irreversible impact on the transgender community for generations to come.  The Supreme Court has not yet decided the case, but the Trump Administration Justice Department withdrew its brief in that court supporting the plaintiffs. 

In June 2025, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Tennessee law banning gender affirming medical care for minors as not violating the Fourteenth Amendment.