What I saw outside the Supreme Court amid oral arguments about whether states can protect minors from sex change medicine

(The Daily Signal) – About 1,000 transgender activists and parental rights champions rallied outside the Supreme Court as it heard oral arguments in a case that will decide whether states may ban transgender medical interventions for children.

LGBTQ+ activists with the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, the Gender Liberation Movement, the Young Feminist Party, and other groups bused in protesters for the “Free to Be Ourselves Rally” on the court’s left.

Medical watchdog Do No Harm hosted doctors, detransitioners, and other allies on the right side.

A mother told The Daily Signal her family travelled to the rally from Arizona to support her child “Violet,” a biological male identifying as a girl. Violet told his parents he was trans “when she was one and a half,” the mother claimed.

“She knew since birth,” the woman said.

Rich Guggenheim, director of legislation for Gays Against Groomers, said transgender procedures are a “modern-day form of conversion therapy.” He said if most children experiencing gender dysphoria are able to go through puberty, they grow out of it and identify as gay or lesbian.

January Littlejohn, senior fellow with Do No Harm, gave advice to other parents whose children are experiencing gender dysphoria. Her daughter fell prey to gender ideology in 2020, and Littlejohn affirmed her—in her biological sex. She led her daughter away from transgender medical procedures.

“If we had gone along that pathway,” Littlejohn said, “she would be irreversibly harmed right now.” 

A family medicine doctor told The Daily Signal gender that procedures for children constitute “mutilation” and are “anti-science.”

A mom and transgender-identifying adolescent at the rally said they want the Supreme Court to rule the Tennessee law unconstitutional because their home state, Louisiana, bans transgender procedures for minors.

“The wrong puberty can kill us,” the young person who identified as transgender told The Daily Signal. “There are people here who are alive because they got access to gender-affirming care, and restricting the right to that will kill people.”

The mom added that the “most pro-life thing politicians can do” is allow “gender-affirming care” because transgender kids will commit suicide without it.

In oral arguments, Chase Strangio, the female laywer for the ACLU who identifies as male, admitted that transgender people committing “completed suicide” is extremely rare. Strangio became the first transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court.

Harrison Tinsley, a California dad who won a custody battle against his ex-girlfriend who wanted to transition their son, told his story to The Daily Signal.

“You just have to speak the truth and love them with all your heart,” he said. 

Some rally attendees braved freezing temperatures in order to get a seat inside the court for oral arguments.