Supreme Court to take up 2 LGBTQ cases

The U.S. Supreme Court opened its 2024-25 session October 7 with at least 10 LGBTQ-related petitions before it. Seven of those petitions involve transgender issues: Four ask whether states can limit a minor's access to treatment for gender dysphoria, and three ask whether states can ban transgender females from participating in female sports competitions.

Of those 10 LGBTQ-related cases, the court has agreed to hear two cases and refused to hear two others this session. Six others await disposition

The Supreme Court announced on October 4 that it will review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in a case in which a straight employee challenges lower court rulings that say she cannot sue under a law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination. In the other case, the court has taken up a case from Tennessee to decide whether states can ban minors from receiving treatment for gender dysphoria.

In the discrimination against straights case, Ames v. Ohio, a straight female employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services filed a lawsuit after two gay coworkers were chosen for positions she sought or held and then she was demoted. Marlean Ames' lawsuit said she was the victim of sexual orientation discrimination. But both the district court and a Sixth Circuit panel ruled against her, noting that she offered "no evidence other than her own experience."

In her appeal, Ames' attorneys argue that the Sixth Circuit and four other courts of appeals require majority-group plaintiffs to prove —in addition to the other elements of Title VII— "background circumstances to support the suspicion that the defendant is that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority."

The court, in June, indicated it would accept the Biden administration's appeal of another Sixth Circuit decision: U.S. v. Tennessee (or, more formally, U.S. v. Jonathan Skrmetti, attorney general for Tennessee).

The U.S. Department of Justice filed the appeal to the Supreme Court after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Tennessee could enforce a ban against medical treatment of gender dysphoria in any minor in the state. Specifically, noted the DOJ, the Tennessee law prohibits any treatment that would enable a minor to "identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex...." And the law prohibits any treatment for a minor's "purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."

Nineteen states have laws that bar treatment of minors for gender dysphoria. More than 50 transgender adults, including actor Elliot Page, filed a brief in support of the administration. And several LGBTQ legal organizations, including GLAD and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, submitted a brief in support of the U.S. government's appeal. Members of Congress, including 11 senators and 153 members of the House also submitted a brief in support of the government's case.

The Supreme Court has not yet set the dates for oral arguments in the two cases it has accepted.

In June, the court also refused to take up the appeals of two cases seeking to determine whether states can ban transgender females from participating in women's and girls sports competitions. Department of Education v. Louisiana and Department of Education v. Tennesee.

There are many other cases pending.

In Mahmoud v. Montgomery County, three sets of parents have appealed a decision from the Fourth Circuit that held public schools did not have to give parents an opportunity to opt out their children from classroom books that discussed sexuality. The parents said this violated their right to free exercise of religion; the Fourth Circuit panel disagreed, saying the parents were free to exercise their beliefs and teach their children anything they wanted. The books which prompted the conflict were LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks for elementary school children. (Status: Montgomery County, Maryland, has until October 16 to file their brief in opposition to the parents' petition that the high court hear their appeal.)

Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made treatment for gender dysphoria a somewhat common complaint in his remarks to campaign rallies. In his second visit to Butler, Pa., rattling off a mind-numbing list of impossible campaign promises (make sure everyone can afford "groceries, a beautiful car, and a home," "build a defense shield around our country," and "keep critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools."

After rambling on some more, Tump said, as president he would "keep men out of women's sports" because "it's so demeaning to women." He has derided Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for having supported for the Equality Act, which would prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination

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