Tennessee’s Republican-dominated Senate advanced a bill last week that would make it illegal for adults to help minors in the state access to gender-affirming care without their parents’ permission. If signed into law, Tennessee would become the first state to enact this kind of legislation, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Under the proposed law, an adult who “recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor within [Tennessee] for the purpose of receiving” gender-affirming care could be charged with a Class C felony, which is punishable by three to 15 years in prison. The law would not apply to the parents or legal guardians of a young person or to adults who have permission from a young person’s parents or legal guardians. It would also allow parents to sue anyone who violates the law.
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As laws banning access to gender-affirming care for minors have been enacted in states across the country in recent years, the number of families forced to travel to other states to access care for their transgender children has dramatically increased alongside efforts to help those families get access to care. One such program, the Campaign for Southern Equality’s Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project (STYEP), provides direct support, including grants for travel expenses and a provider referral network, to families affected by gender-affirming care bans in the U.S. South.
At the same time, 14 states and the District of Columbia have enacted “shield” laws or executive orders protecting families who travel to access gender-affirming care from criminal charges and civil action from their home states where such care is illegal for minors.
While Tennessee’s proposed law does not directly target parents who take their own kids out of state to access gender-affirming care, critics worry it could be used against programs like STYEP that help families find and access care. But as trans activist and journalist Erin Reed notes, some legal experts say that broad interpretation of the law would likely amount to a violation of the First Amendment.
“We’ve had two bills in two days regulate the types of conversations people can have with each other,” state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D) said last week, according to the AP. “We shouldn’t be trying to violate constitutional rights and that’s what this is trying to do.”
As the AP reports, the bill’s language mirrors that of similar legislation, also approved by the Tennessee Senate last week, targeting adults who help minors in the state seek abortion care. Critics warn that both bills could be interpreted broadly to outlaw providing any information about abortion or gender-affirming care options to young people in Tennessee.
However, an Idaho law using nearly identical language as the two Tennessee bills — which sought to ban adults from helping pregnant minors seek abortions — was blocked by a judge last November. Amid a lawsuit challenging the Idaho law, U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora Grasham issued a preliminary injunction preventing its enforcement, saying that it violates the First Amendment’s rights to free speech and expression.
The Tennessee bill will now move to the state’s Republican-dominated House for approval.
As Reed notes, the patchwork of state laws around gender-affirming care and abortion across the country is likely leading to a showdown between states aiming to preserve access to those services versus states looking to enforce their own anti-trans and anti-choice laws in states where such care is legal.
“The fight over transgender rights is spilling into a battle over jurisdictional issues that have not been litigated in over a century and a half,” Reed wrote last week in her Erin in the Morning newsletter.
