Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has expressed support for Tennessee's law restricting sex-change procedures for minors. The statement follows arguments at the Supreme Court concerning states' rights to impose age restrictions on such procedures.
"Alabama is proud to help defend Tennessee’s commonsense law protecting kids from powerful, often irreversible, chemical and surgical ‘sex-change’ procedures," said Marshall. He emphasized that children with gender dysphoria deserve alternatives to hormones and surgeries. Marshall criticized health officials in the previous administration for collaborating with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to create misleading standards of care.
Marshall claimed these standards misled courts into believing that children need these treatments, which he argued is contrary to systematic evidence reviews. He accused lawyers from the ACLU of convincing lower courts to defer to what he described as self-interested experts based on limited evidence.
"As we saw today, the Court seems rightly skeptical of such cynical antics by the ACLU and the Biden administration," said Marshall. He argued that scientific evidence and legal precedent do not support the challengers' position, contrasting medical treatments for different conditions and asserting that recognizing these differences does not violate constitutional protections.
In October, Marshall filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court alleging manipulation of medical guidelines used against Tennessee's law. A decision from the Supreme Court is anticipated by next summer.
Marshall has been active in opposing federal policies on sex-change procedures for minors, defending Alabama's laws and supporting similar legislation in other states. In January, Alabama's Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act was cleared for enforcement by the Eleventh Circuit.