by Cullen Peele •
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, applauded the Department of Justice’s filing of a federal lawsuit against the State of Tennessee challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted S.B. 1, that bans age-appropriate, medically necessary gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee last month.
Today, the Department of Justice announced decisive action, recognizing what is at stake for transgender people’s lives in Tennessee and across the country. Rather than tackle any real issue at stake for Tennesseans, the legislature and Governor Lee decided to attack vulnerable youth who are at the mercy of politicians who think they know better than families, doctors, and the greater medical community. Gender affirming care is life-saving care. Period. We appreciate that the Biden Administration is saying ‘enough is enough’ when it comes to attempts by Governor Lee and other Tennessee lawmakers to legislate transgender children out of existence. We applaud the DOJ’s announcement and will continue to work with President Biden and the rest of his administration to send a clear message that our community is not going anywhere.
The Department of Justice previously intervened in litigation brought by HRC, GLAD, NCLR, SPLC and our partner law firms challenging Alabama’s ban on gender affirming care for youth.
Get the facts about gender-affirming care:
For more information, please visit hrc.org/transgender as well as these resources:
To make a general inquiry, please visit our contact page. Members of the media can reach our press office at: (202) 572-8968 or email press@hrc.org.
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