For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Christina Adeleke, cadeleke@aidsunited.org; communications@aidsunited.org
Washington, D.C., June 18, 2025 – Today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in L.W. v. Skrmetti/U.S. v. Skrmetti, leaving in place Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming hormonal therapies for transgender youth. The case was brought on the grounds the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating based on sex and transgender status. Sadly, in a 6:3 decision, the majority court failed to protect families’ freedoms and allowed politicians’ targeting of transgender youth’s healthcare needs to stand.
At the heart of this case is Tennessee family Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville, and their 15-year-old transgender daughter. They bravely challenged a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 18. Tennessee is home to over 3,000 transgender adolescents and the health care banned by this law is supported by the entire mainstream of the medical community. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s ruling means the state law will stand.
Health care bans threaten people’s well-being, the safety of our communities, and the ability of every family to determine what is best for them. Families and doctors deserve trust, respect, and privacy as they make medical decisions, free from political interference.
Medical care for transgender youth is endorsed as essential treatment for those who need it by every major medical, pediatric, and psychological association in the United States. For transgender youth, hormone therapy medications can serve as the foundation for the lives they lead, giving them the freedom to be themselves and helping them reach the future they deserve. These medications have been used for decades across the world to help transgender people – as well as people who are not transgender – live full and healthy lives.
U.S. v. Skrmetti, one of the biggest cases for transgender rights in Supreme Court history, is also part of an even bigger picture. Transgender people are facing an onslaught of political attacks as the Trump administration and extremist politicians nationwide try to strip communities of accurate IDs, workplace protections, health care, and more. While this decision does not change the law in states that have not passed bans on care, we know politicians across the country will continue their attempts to drive transgender people out of public life.
“These efforts, as harmful as they are, will not prevail if we remain a community united – an attack on any member of our community is an attack on us all, ” says Carl Baloney Jr., AIDS United’s CEO-elect. “We must remain committed to fighting until every family – including families with transgender youth – can ensure their child can receive essential health care, no matter which state they live in.”
No matter what the court says, transgender people are not in this fight alone. AIDS United will stand alongside our transgender partners to fight for every families’ ability to get the health care they need, and for transgender people’s right to control their own futures.
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About AIDS United – AIDS United’s mission is to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. through strategic grant-making, capacity-building, and policy/advocacy. AIDS United works to ensure access to life-saving HIV care and prevention services and to advance sound HIV-related policy for populations and communities most impacted by the U.S. epidemic. As of January 2021, our strategic grant-making initiatives have directly funded more than $118 million to local communities, and we have leveraged more than $184 million in additional investments for programs that include, but are not limited to, syringe access, access to care, capacity-building, HIV prevention, and advocacy. Learn more at www.aidsunited.org.
