On the morning of June 18th, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the state of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth in U.S. v. Skrmetti in a 6-3 decision. This comes in addition to executive actions by the Trump Administration that seek to cut off access for people under the age of 19. Twenty-five states currently have adopted such bans.
A recent study commissioned by GOP members of Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services found that gender-affirming care for transgender youth generated overwhelmingly positive mental health and psychosocial outcomes. Despite scientific evidence of their incorrect stance, willful ignorance has persisted in taking away bodily autonomy from transgender and intersex young people and their doctors. “There doesn’t seem to be an appetite to readdress it,” Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox glibly spoke of his state-level ban earlier this week.
Make no mistake that this decision will result in negative impacts on young lives, with the potential for severely detrimental physical and mental health outcomes. Justice Sotomayor leaves us with this from her dissenting opinion: “The Court’s willingness to do so here does irrevocable damage to the Equal Protection Clause and invites legislatures to engage in discrimination by hiding blatant sex classifications in plain sight. It also authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them. Because there is no constitutional justification for that result, I dissent.”
This is a sobering moment in US History for all of us. Yet it is important to note, in the ACLU’s statement following the decision, Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project writes that “Though this is a painful setback, it does not mean that transgender people and our allies are left with no options to defend our freedom, our health care, or our lives. The Court left undisturbed Supreme Court and lower court precedent that other examples of discrimination against transgender people are unlawful. We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve.”
This Supreme Court ruling also comes in the wake of the House passing the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1) on May 22nd. In the middle of the night, provisions were added that would prohibit federal Medicaid and CHIP funding being used for gender-affirming care for transgender people of all ages. This would be a ban that affects all transgender Americans, and is the most comprehensive federal effort to limit this life-saving care. This controversial social policy has been snuck into a fiscal matter, no doubt in an effort to let it slip by unnoticed.
PLEASE check in on the transgender youth in your lives, and let them know that they are valid and loved as they are. Tell them that you’re not giving up on their wellbeing. Contact your representatives and urge them to vote against any national bans on gender affirming care for transgender youth, especially H.R. 1, as there is already legislation in the pipeline that would make that a reality if passed. As people of faith, we have a responsibility to speak out against this injustice and to mobilize our people for a safer world. We have a responsibility to live out the commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves as Jesus tells us in the book of Mark (Mark 12:30-31). We have the responsibility to care for those in need, for as Matthew 25 tells us, to take care of the most marginalized is also in service to God themself.
Young people can reach out for crisis support 24/7 through the Trevor Project by texting START to 678-678, calling 1-866-488-7386 or visiting www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/ to start a conversation via their online chat. The lifesaving services of the LGBTQ+ subsection of the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline are set to be shut down on July 17th, 2025– sign the Trevor Project’s petition to stop the shutdown and keep this lifeline running.
The Trans Lifeline can be reached at (877) 565-8860. Run by and for transgender people, they offer microgrants and other resources at https://translifeline.org/.
In deep lament, and persistent solidarity,
Room for All
ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation
Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests
Transmission Ministry Collective
Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
More Light Presbyterians
Pride in the Pews
Reconciling Ministries Network
The Collective of Queer Christian Leaders is a Queer Christian Collective of organizational leaders dedicated to combating white Christian Supremacy through centering Queer people and innovative collaboration. You can learn more about the Collective at www.qchristian.org/cqcl.