Partners for Ethical Care Doesn’t Know What Causes Dysphoria
An anti-trans organization has filed a brief in an important Supreme Court case about gender-affirming care for trans youth, suggesting that gender dysphoria can be caused by… Lyme disease?
Opinion by Alyssa Steinsiek
What causes gender dysphoria?
A rational person, educated on transgender people’s experiences, might suggest that incongruence between gender expression and gender identity causes gender dysphoria. What if you’re not a rational person? What if, in fact, your goal is to detransition trans youth via despicable conversion therapy practices proven to do serious harm?
In that case, you must be a member of Partners for Ethical [sic] Care! PEC is a Chicago-based “charity” whose work includes promoting harmful pseudo-science, hosting anti-trans talks at various bigot conventions, and supporting bills that would hurt trans youth. Thanks to reporting by Erin Reed over at Erin in the Morning, we know about PEC’s latest maneuver: Submitting an amicus brief in United States v. Skrmetti, an extremely important lawsuit regarding the legality of a Tennessee gender-affirming care ban for under 18s that’s going to the Supreme Court.
The case began in April of 2023 when the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP filed suit against the State of Tennessee in an attempt to block the state’s ban on medically necessary gender-affirming care for Tennessee’s transgender youth. The plaintiffs include the 15-year-old daughter of Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville, Memphis-based Doctor Susan Lacy, and two anonymous people.
“I want this law to be struck down so that I can continue to receive the care I need, in conversation with my parents and my doctors, and have the freedom to live my life and do the things I enjoy,” said the Williams’ daughter. A reasonable request from a young girl who has, at last, found her joy… and whom the state of Tennessee wants to do tremendous harm to.
The law, which prohibits trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care in Tennessee and forces trans youth already receiving gender-affirming care to halt treatment, was originally set to go into effect on March 31st of this year. On June 28th of 2023, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop the ban from going into place while the case progressed, but on July 8th a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals accepted Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s request to lift that injunction, both a blatant example of bias and overstep by the court, and the first instance in which an injunction against a gender-affirming care ban was reverse. As a result, Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors went into effect immediately.
Studies have shown a 73% reduction in rate of suicidality among trans youth who undergo gender-affirming care, or that a study published in Nature Human Behavior linked states criminalizing gender-affirming care with a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans youth. PEC would have you believe that they have children’s best interests at heart, but PEC’s frontrunning co-founder, Jeanette Cooper, lost custody of her transgender child for refusing to affirm their identity.
Does that sound like love to you?
The brief PEC submitted to the Supreme Court is laughable, to say the least. In one section they reference supposed gender-affirming care bans in Europe to justify bans in the US, a meaningless distraction tactic we’ve covered before. They provide testimony only from the alleged parents of trans youth, no trans kids themselves, and much of their “testimony” reeks of repeatedly disproven pseudoscience.
Kevin and Charmagne Cox believed only a “sliver” of the medical community supports gender-affirming care, in spite of evidence to the contrary, and report their child has “desisted” from reporting gender dysphoria only after they cut off the child’s access to anybody who might affirm them in any way. Joy Flores believes that a combination of COVID lockdowns, PCOS and internet pornography turned her child trans, and is furious that a therapist refused to share privileged information about her child. Martha S. thinks that a sinus infection made her child trans.
These people are not serious, and are not to be taken seriously. They would rather control their miserable children than give them a chance to be happy, and have found an organization willing to platform their ridiculous half-truths and delusions to the Supreme Court of the United States. It cannot be overstated just how important this case is to gender-affirming care for trans youth nationwide, and how dangerous the words of groups like PEC can be to our community.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on December 4th.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
