GLAAD RESOURCES FOR REPORTERS–TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE ORAL ARGUMENT AT THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

(New York, NY – December 3, 2024) – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is providing resources to reporters ahead of oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a landmark case that will be heard at the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4.

The case challenges Tennessee’s law banning health care such as hormone therapy and puberty-pausing medications for transgender youth under 18, while the same treatments remain available to cisgender (non-transgender) youth. The law also criminalizes doctors and providers who seek to support transgender youth seeking care. The ban is one of approximately 25 such bans passed in Republican-controlled legislatures around the country in recent years, despite every major medical association and leading health authority in support of health care for transgender people:and youth.The Court’s decision could have widespread impact on the availability of care to all youth nationwide.

U.S. v. Skrmetti will also mark the first time that an out transgender attorney, Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, will argue before the Supreme Court.

GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) issued the following statement in advance of the oral argument:

“U.S. v. Skrmetti is a groundbreaking moment of visibility for transgender Americans and will have a tremendous impact on whether we continue treating one another with dignity and respect in this country. Sweeping categorical exclusions on mainstream consensus health care for any group of Americans are discriminatory, as many federal courts have already affirmed, including in red states. It is imperative that those watching understand the stakes here – access to health care should be available to all who need it, without the interference of the government. Private and deeply personal health care decisions should remain between families and their trusted health care providers — not left to the whim of politicians, the U.S. Supreme Court, or anyone else. It is urgent that the Court see all citizens as worthy of life and liberty, values all Americans support.”

GLAAD recently hosted a media briefing alongside the American Civil Liberties Union, the GenderCool Project, and the Fenway Institute highlighting experts and voices of those impacted by the case.

Best Practices:for Reporters Covering Transgender People and Topics

• If a story is about LGBTQ people, seek and include LGBTQ voices. If about trans and nonbinary people specifically, find a trans voice. If about health care, seek a provider who cares for trans people and youth, or quote statements from the 30+ medical organizations. Medical organization statements here.

• Ensure consent – the visibility of transgender people may come at a high cost for them personally. Discuss ways to protect their safety and privacy and still tell their stories.

• Offer your pronouns in introductions, and ask interviewees for their pronouns, and use them in your reporting.

• Elevate expertise over opinion. Note when the facts and experts conflict with opinion and rhetoric.

• Challenge critics of LGBTQ people for evidence.

• Report the anti-LGBTQ history of critics. GLAAD has profiles of public figures and organizations, and their records of rhetoric and policy against LGBTQ people on the GLAAD Accountability Project.

• Avoid the urge to “both sides” your coverage – when you have facts and expertise, center those truths and avoid coverage that checks off a box for so-called balance rather than expresses and elevates the truth.

GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide includes terminology on nearly two dozen topics related to LGBTQ people. Most recently, GLAAD issued an update outlining how reporters should avoid repeating terms coined by anti-LGBTQ extremists that diminish and dehumanize transgender people and their lived experiences.