Protect Children, Respect the Rule of Law
Tennessee shows the way, and the Supreme Court affirms…
Big news out of the high court, which reaffirmed Tennessee’s legal and moral right to protect the children of the state. The citizens there, though legislation, prohibited sex change procedures – both pharmaceutical and surgical – for minors in the state. In fact, the sweeping ruling in the US v. Skrmetti case applies to all 25 states who now have protections to stop abusive adults from permanently scarring confused, vulnerable children with life-altering mutilations of their bodies.
This amazing verdict upholds the obligation in a functioning, ethical republic for the people to decide which legal protections must apply to children in their states. Those protections transcend from mundane ones like forbidding tattoos and tanning beds to minors, to more profound ones like outlawing child labor and child brides.
With this legal protection now in place for half of America’s states, parents and other caregivers who love struggling children can focus on real healing for those young souls cast adrift in the toxic ideology of gender fluidity that dominates the pop culture and academic realms of recent years. This sadistic fad will start to fade, as politics is a prime driver of culture in this present era.
Instead of deforming physically healthy children, to the benefit of giant hospital systems and Big Pharma, parents and other adult allies of children can offer up support, affirmation, correction, prayer, and therapy needed for children and teens who struggle with uncertainty about their identity. These children do not need permanent disfigurement of their bodies, but rather a healthy acceptance that God made them exactly as He intended.
Legally speaking, this case stands out as a refreshing return to judicial sanity. Those of us on the patriotic populist Right have been super frustrated with GOP-nominated justices who seem to search for reasons to vote with the three incorrigible radical justices, at almost every turn. But in this solid 6-3 decision, even those of us who remain skeptical of John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett should acknowledge their bravery and logic here in this case…in defense of children.
High praise should also flow to Tennessee, of course, and to the steadfast attorney general of the Volunteer State, Jonathan Skrmetti. Like so many Americans during this recent “Great Sorting,” I left blue America as a political and cultural refugee to red America. I could not be more proud of my new home state of Tennessee, a place governed by principle that took strong action, especially because these sick abuses of children were unfolding right in our state capital at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Tennessee overall is a very traditional and religious state. Donald Trump, for example, won Tennessee by a stunning +900,000 vote margin. But Nashville is a different story, and Vanderbilt is a small island of radical leftist extremism within a sea of surrounding common sense.
In videos revealed by the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, officials at the Vanderbilt Transgender Clinic gushed about the massive flow of money that pours in for mutilating children. The clinic director Dr. Shayne Taylor remarked that “female-to-male bottom surgeries, these are huge money makers.” The surgeon added that such transitions could bring in “up to $100,000” for the hospital.
Well, those financial rewards for harming children have ended, at least in the state of Tennessee!
Even more importantly, children will preserve the right to be, well, kids. Many children have curious and even delusional thoughts about their identity, their bodies, and how they fit into this world. What those children most need – in addition to lots of parental love – is the time and space to reckon internally with those struggles.
As the new president of CatholicVote, Kelsey Reinhardt explains well:
Children do not need chemicals or scalpels to feel more at home in their bodies. They need the time and space to say later: “I was wrong, and I’m grateful someone protected me and allowed me to change my mind.” Studies show that when given the proper time and support to grapple with their internal conflicts, between 80% and 90% of children who question their gender identity ultimately embrace their biological sex.
On the political front, this issue will become immediately salient in states like the Commonwealth of Virginia, holding 2025 statewide elections this November. For instance, incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares runs for re-election and posted this reaction to the Skrmetti ruling: “The Supreme Court just upheld Tennessee’s law protecting minors from irreversible sex-transition medical procedures. Virginia was proud to stand with Tennessee in this fight to protect our children from lifelong harm.”
We know from extensive polling on the subject that this topic moves votes. For example, right before the 2024 election, I ran a poll in battleground Wisconsin that showed the Trump vs. Harris race locked in a super tight race, slightly breaking toward Trump. But on this topic of allowing sex changes for children, Wisconsin voters rejected that extremism by a huge 46% margin, 69-23%. Among professing Christians in the Badger State, the spread was +60% in favor of outlawing the cruel procedures, 77-17%. Even among those who claimed no religion at all, a majority 52% of voters still favored protecting Wisconsin children.
So, this fight was indeed worth the effort – on principles and for the political payoff. The battles continue, of course, but this victory represents a huge step forward, for our culture and our court system. Let’s build on it!
Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group, and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote.
He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, plus a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.