WDI USA Files Amicus Brief in L.W. v. Skrmetti
July 25, 2023
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On July 24, 2023, Women’s Declaration International USA (WDI USA) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the case of L.W. v. Skrmetti.
In this case, Tennessee enacted a law prohibiting "gender affirming care" (puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones, and surgeries) for minors. Several children who deny their sex (along with their parents and their doctors) sued.
The District Court agreed with them with respect to puberty blockers and wrong-sex hormones (but dropped the complaint about surgeries because none of the kids was actually pursuing surgery) and blocked the state law from taking effect. The state filed an emergency appeal and a request to overturn the block—and it got it.
From the brief:
WDI USA is interested in this appeal first because, as an organization, we can hardly protect the sex-based rights of women and girls if sex is judicially redefined to mean an amorphous continuum of subjectively felt “genders” that may not be related to sex at all.
Second, this case deals directly with the authority of a government entity (in this case the state of Tennessee) to protect children from the harms of what is colloquially referred to as “gender affirming care” (i.e., the use of hormones that cause irreversible damage to young peoples’ natural physical and psychological growth and development).
Third, the use of words like “transgender” and “cisgender” is producing massive confusion throughout society as well as in law, and ought to be avoided at all costs.
In view of its work on these issues, WDI USA has a meaningful perspective to offer the Court.
You may read or download the full brief here. A couple of regular readers are likely to see themselves cited in it.
One thing that makes this case a bit different from other cases is that the Sixth Circuit has expedited briefing and committed itself to entering a ruling by the end of September. That meant that organizations that wanted to file amicus briefs in support of the state had to get their briefs written and filed within the space of about two weeks (this is no small feat). Thanks so much to everyone who worked very hard to make this happen.
“That meant that organizations that wanted to file amicus briefs in support of the state had to get their briefs written and filed within the space of about two weeks (this is no small feat).” No small feat, indeed. Kudos to Kara and all at WDI who worked on this for such a cogent brief, timely delivered.