Several LGBTQ advocacy groups are suing Tennessee over a new law that bans transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming health care, including hormone therapy or puberty blockers.
Lambda Legal, the ACLU and a Washington D.C.-based law firm are suing the state on behalf of a Memphis doctor and three Tennessee families. The suit argues that the law is discriminatory and will have “devastating effects” on the state’s trans kids.
Plaintiff Samantha Williams says her daughter taking estrogen has greatly improved her mental health.
“I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her,” Williams says. “We don’t want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs, or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether. No family should have to make this kind of choice.”
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court, seeks to temporarily block the law from taking effect this summer.
If successful, it wouldn’t be the first law targeting LGBTQ people to be blocked by the courts this year. Tennessee’s law restricting drag in public spaces received a temporary injunction the night before it was supposed to take effect.
That injunction, originally capped at 14 days, was extended into next month while the court hears arguments brought by a Memphis-based LGBTQ theater company.
Judge Thomas L. Parker extends the temporary injunction against the state’s drag restrictions.
Tennessee Republicans have said both laws are intended to protect children while LGBTQ advocates say these laws ultimately hurt queer kids.
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