Elliot Page calls on Supreme Court to reject Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care

Elliot Page has added his name to calls for the US Supreme Court to reject Tennessee’s law that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

The actor joined 56 other transgender adults, including other famous faces like Lilly Wachowski and Nicole Maines, in a collective demand for the Supreme Court to consider rejecting the ban that was signed into law earlier this year.

The ban, which has been widely challenged by families and advocacy groups since it was signed into law in March, prevents Tennessee medics from providing gender-affirming care like puberty blockers, HRT and surgical procedures to trans people under the age of 18.

It also declared that any trans youth who were already receiving gender-affirming care before the ban must end their treatment by 31 March, 2024.

In another attempt to challenge the devastating ban, Page and 56 others filed a brief with the US Supreme Court urging them to reject the ban and noting the detrimental impact it would have on young people in Tennessee.

“Some [of us] were fortunate enough to be able to begin receiving this care as minors,” the filing read, according to the Tennessean.

“For the majority, however, the barriers to accessing this care – due, fundamentally, to discrimination – were insurmountable until adulthood. 

“[Those] who received gender-affirming health care as minors describe it as crucial to their well-being and even survival. Many who started care after adolescence suffered as a result of the delay.

“Early care relieved gender dysphoria and, for some, has even saved their lives.”

Page came out as transgender in 2020 and has made it abundantly clear in interviews and his first memoir Pageboy that being able to transition has improved his life in every possible way.

“I could have never imagined in a million years just how different I feel, how centered, how present, the space in my mind to be creative, to feel inspired,” he had told journalist Gina Chua during an interview about his book earlier this year.

In a more recent discussion with self-help guru Jay Shetty, Page confessed that, before he transitioned, he “couldn’t see a future” because he “didn’t know how much longer [he] could last feeling this way.”

“Literally everything in my life is better now,” he had said. “There’s this ability to just exist every day on set and just be on my body.”

Now, Page is doing his best to help other trans people feel the euphoria he feels by getting to be their most authentic selves by receiving gender-affirming care.

The Supreme Court filing continues: “The care banned by [the Tennessee and Kentucky laws] has alleviated the suffering of countless transgender people and has paved the way for them to live more fulfilling and joyful lives.”

This brief follows a lawsuit filed by the families of transgender children in April, which was eventually joined by the US Department of Justice, calling for the ban to be blocked. 

In June, a federal judge ruled that the ban would be blocked, but this ruling was reversed in a federal appeals court case in September.

Last month, the families involved in the lawsuit filed a petition to the US Supreme Court to ask for a preliminary injunction that would block the ban from being enforced until after the cases against the law are settled.

Gender-affirming care, which had been widely available across the US for over a decade, is endorsed by major medical associations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the World Medical Association, and the World Health Organisation – to name a few.

Countless studies have proven that gender-affirming care is beneficial and overwhelmingly reduces rates of depression and suicide.