Together with other trans people and our families across this country, we received with heaviness of heart, if not surprise, today’s news of the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti. In the ruling, a 6-3 majority upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, thus protecting bans in more than 20 other states, with more in the pipeline.
These bans constitute a deeply cynical, life-undermining political interference in the most intimate and often life-saving health care decisions. Such decisions are processes of careful discernment with the support of medical doctors who are following growing evidence in their field and with families who know and love their children. This ruling also encourages a hateful movement that foments exclusion and violence against vulnerable youth and indeed all transgender people, by refusing to uphold constitutional protections against discrimination on the basis of sex.
“In sadness, I dissent.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who read her dissent out loud from the bench this morning, wrote that the majority decision is a retreat from heightened scrutiny of discrimination on the basis of sex under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, upholding a “categorical ban on lifesaving treatment” on the basis of sex and transgender status. “The Court today renders transgender Americans doubly vulnerable to state-sanctioned discrimination,” she said. “It authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them … By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.”
We are crystal clear that this majority ruling, and the hundreds of anti-trans bills – over 700 – now moving through state houses and Congress today, are part of a strategy to use transgender people, and especially transgender youth, who are a small minority with little political power in American life, as pawns of political convenience. They are using our existence, our very lives, as an opportunity to gin up a culture war to support a surging right-wing political movement – a movement that deploys a distorted, Christian Nationalist rendition of Christianity. If these same legislators really and truly cared about the health and well-being of America’s children, they would not now be moving a “Murder Budget” bill through Congress that proposes draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that will snatch access to health care and food from millions of kids with the stroke of a pen in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
A faithful response
In the midst of this maelstrom, we are also encouraged by the support that surrounds us.
We are grateful for the Episcopal Church’s clear, official position of support for anti-discrimination laws, gender-affirming care and access to health care for all, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
We are inspired by vocal support from bishops, clergy, and lay Episcopalians in state legislatures against bans such as the one in Tennessee. As Bishop Betsey Monnot said in her recent testimony to the Iowa State legislature, “Transgender Iowans are members of my congregations and members of communities across the state of Iowa. They are your neighbors and my neighbors. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is unthinkable to remove civil rights and legal protections from people that we love.”
We are deeply appreciative of the Episcopal dioceses and congregations that held Trans Day of Visibility events and services this year, and for the Episcopal Church’s recent celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride with Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.
With pride we lift up the work of Aaron Scott, the Gender Justice Staff Officer at Episcopal Church Center, and all who support his vital ministry. Aaron has offered galvanizing webinars (such as the Gender Justice Jam and “Building a Fighting Church”) and other formation resources to support dioceses and congregations in responding to what is an unfolding health and pastoral care emergency.
Stand with us.
Indeed, with this Supreme Court ruling, this pastoral emergency affecting families with transgender youth will be deepening. Families in states with health care bans will be considering whether to stay or go, even as nearly 50% of trans adults have moved or are considering moving to another U.S. location or out of the country altogether. Churches in states that still allow health care for trans youth may be receiving some of these families, even as churches in states with bans continue to be called upon to support those who remain. In an atmosphere of rejection, menace, and violence our Episcopal congregations are, in many places, a singular place of refuge for our families. More than ever before, now is the time to step up our pastoral care, advocacy, and solidarity with trans people of all ages.
In the coming days, we urge our congregations and dioceses to join in the Pride events happening in your local communities as a visible Christian presence of love and solidarity, especially in trans-specific events.
Please also observe the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s feast day on July 1; this is an opportunity to lift up the work of a remarkable legal scholar and Episcopal priest whose writings were fundamental in constitutional advances to roll back discrimination on the basis of sex and race – and whose own gender identity was almost certainly transgender, although Dr. Murray was not able to express this identity in a public way.
As we sit with today’s news and gather strength for the journey forward, we are reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words to Jesus-followers in Corinth and Ephesus (2 Cor 4:8-9, 10b; Ephesians 6:12). We are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck but not destroyed. For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, confident that Jesus’ risen life is being made visible in our bodies.
These bans constitute a deeply cynical, life-undermining political interference in the most intimate and often life-saving health care decisions. Such decisions are processes of careful discernment with the support of medical doctors who are following growing evidence in their field and with families who know and love their children. This ruling also encourages a hateful movement that foments exclusion and violence against vulnerable youth and indeed all transgender people, by refusing to uphold constitutional protections against discrimination on the basis of sex.
“In sadness, I dissent.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who read her dissent out loud from the bench this morning, wrote that the majority decision is a retreat from heightened scrutiny of discrimination on the basis of sex under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, upholding a “categorical ban on lifesaving treatment” on the basis of sex and transgender status. “The Court today renders transgender Americans doubly vulnerable to state-sanctioned discrimination,” she said. “It authorizes, without second thought, untold harm to transgender children and the parents and families who love them … By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.”
We are crystal clear that this majority ruling, and the hundreds of anti-trans bills – over 700 – now moving through state houses and Congress today, are part of a strategy to use transgender people, and especially transgender youth, who are a small minority with little political power in American life, as pawns of political convenience. They are using our existence, our very lives, as an opportunity to gin up a culture war to support a surging right-wing political movement – a movement that deploys a distorted, Christian Nationalist rendition of Christianity. If these same legislators really and truly cared about the health and well-being of America’s children, they would not now be moving a “Murder Budget” bill through Congress that proposes draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that will snatch access to health care and food from millions of kids with the stroke of a pen in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
A faithful response
In the midst of this maelstrom, we are also encouraged by the support that surrounds us.
We are grateful for the Episcopal Church’s clear, official position of support for anti-discrimination laws, gender-affirming care and access to health care for all, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
We are inspired by vocal support from bishops, clergy, and lay Episcopalians in state legislatures against bans such as the one in Tennessee. As Bishop Betsey Monnot said in her recent testimony to the Iowa State legislature, “Transgender Iowans are members of my congregations and members of communities across the state of Iowa. They are your neighbors and my neighbors. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is unthinkable to remove civil rights and legal protections from people that we love.”
We are deeply appreciative of the Episcopal dioceses and congregations that held Trans Day of Visibility events and services this year, and for the Episcopal Church’s recent celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride with Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.
With pride we lift up the work of Aaron Scott, the Gender Justice Staff Officer at Episcopal Church Center, and all who support his vital ministry. Aaron has offered galvanizing webinars (such as the Gender Justice Jam and “Building a Fighting Church”) and other formation resources to support dioceses and congregations in responding to what is an unfolding health and pastoral care emergency.
Stand with us.
Indeed, with this Supreme Court ruling, this pastoral emergency affecting families with transgender youth will be deepening. Families in states with health care bans will be considering whether to stay or go, even as nearly 50% of trans adults have moved or are considering moving to another U.S. location or out of the country altogether. Churches in states that still allow health care for trans youth may be receiving some of these families, even as churches in states with bans continue to be called upon to support those who remain. In an atmosphere of rejection, menace, and violence our Episcopal congregations are, in many places, a singular place of refuge for our families. More than ever before, now is the time to step up our pastoral care, advocacy, and solidarity with trans people of all ages.
In the coming days, we urge our congregations and dioceses to join in the Pride events happening in your local communities as a visible Christian presence of love and solidarity, especially in trans-specific events.
Please also observe the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s feast day on July 1; this is an opportunity to lift up the work of a remarkable legal scholar and Episcopal priest whose writings were fundamental in constitutional advances to roll back discrimination on the basis of sex and race – and whose own gender identity was almost certainly transgender, although Dr. Murray was not able to express this identity in a public way.
As we sit with today’s news and gather strength for the journey forward, we are reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words to Jesus-followers in Corinth and Ephesus (2 Cor 4:8-9, 10b; Ephesians 6:12). We are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck but not destroyed. For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, confident that Jesus’ risen life is being made visible in our bodies.
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