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Governor Bill Lee defends Tennessee ban on gender-transition procedures for minors
Summary
Governor Bill Lee said the law banning gender-transition procedures for minors is about protecting children and should be decided by state legislatures, not the U.S. Supreme Court; he cited weak evidence of benefit and growing evidence of harm and referenced an NHS review and recent federal appeals rulings.
Governor Bill Lee said Tennessee’s law banning gender-transition procedures for minors is intended to protect children and should be decided by state legislatures, not the U.S. Supreme Court.
"It is a it's a very serious subject," Lee said in a Fox News interview, adding that the issue is "not political to me" and framing it as a choice between "reasonable versus radical, or at the very least, reasonable versus real risk." He said the evidence of long-term benefit is weak and that evidence of harm is "increasingly becoming very real."
Lee cited an international review led by Dr. Hilary Cass for the U.K. National Health Service, saying the report concluded that "the evidence is weak" and that clinicians "are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity." Quoting from the report, Lee said the NHS review found "there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones to make the treatment routinely available at this time."
The interview host referenced a Fox News voter analysis and polled splits, and summarized opposing legal arguments from civil-rights advocates. "Here's what an ACLU lawyer, Chase Strangio, said about this: 'This is a law that bans medical treatment only when it is prescribed inconsistent with an individual ... Our argument is that it treats people differently because of their ... and therefore, the court has to treat it like all other forms of ... discrimination,' and that's why it's unconstitutional," the host said.
Lee responded that the Tennessee case is about purpose rather than discrimination and that "this is an issue on purpose, and that's why it is an issue that should be determined by states, through the legislative process and and not an issue for the Supreme Court to take up." He noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had upheld Tennessee's law and that the state's attorney general "presented the argument before the Supreme Court today," a development Lee cited as part of the ongoing legal process.
The host observed that Europe has shifted its approach and said the Cass review had led some countries to "put the brakes on." Lee said the U.K. review and actions in other countries and in 20 states in the U.S. reflect caution about performing "life-altering permanent procedures on children."
The host concluded the segment by noting that the Supreme Court's decision on the challenge to Tennessee's law would not be known immediately: "We're not gonna know for a number of weeks."
