The most important element to come out of Wednesday’s hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court was a rejection of the myth that puberty blockers and hormones for the purpose of gender transitioning help prevent suicides in minors with gender dysphoria, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told Newsmax on Thursday.
Parents have been "bullied" into thinking they need to approve irreversible gender transitioning measures — including surgical procedures — for their minor children out of fear they will kill themselves if they don't.
"I thought the suicide conversation was the most important part of the argument (Wednesday), not necessarily because of its impact on the case, but because the rhetoric around why kids need to have these procedures done has been, 'Your kid is going to kill themselves if you don't let them do this,'" Skrmetti told "National Report."
The court heard arguments in the case brought by the Biden administration over Tennessee's 2023 law prohibiting the use of puberty blockers and other gender reassigning treatments for minors.
"I mean, it's been very explicit: You can either have a dead daughter or a live son, or a live daughter or a dead son," Skrmetti said. "People have been bullied into adopting the posture that this is good, because they don't want their kid to die."
A telling moment in Wednesday's hearing came when Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the plaintiffs, acknowledged in questioning by Justice Samuel Alito that research does not support gender treatments as a form of suicide prevention.
"And when the truth comes out, when the research shows that it does not actually affect suicide rate, and when you have the ACLU’s attorney confirming that, it takes that piece of the conversation away, it reduces the expectation out there among kids that that's what they're supposed to do," Skrmetti said. "If the kids keep hearing that, I think it's dangerous. We don't want kids hurting themselves."
Regardless of the court's ruling next summer, Skrmetti said having a more "balanced" conversation about treating gender dysphoria is imperative.
"You know, adolescence is hard for everybody," Skrmetti said. "Gender dysphoria is very difficult to deal with. You know, just because these treatments are inappropriate and dangerous and just because most kids will grow out of gender dysphoria doesn't mean we don't need to take it seriously as something that's causing them a lot of distress.
"And so recognizing that suicide is not inevitable as a result of not getting these treatments is really important for kids to make better decisions, for parents to make better decisions, for us to have a more realistic and balanced conversation about the risks and benefits of giving kids these drugs," he added.
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