Strangio argues before the Supreme Court that Tennessee’s Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1), violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Tennessee’s Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1), reads as follows:
(a)
(1) A healthcare provider shall not knowingly perform or offer to perform on a minor, or administer or offer to administer to a minor, a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of:
(A) Enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex; or
(B) Treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.
The Section of the Fourteenth Amendment which she asserts is violated reads as follows:
”…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
It must be noted the above wording simply commands that whatever a State’s laws are, a person within that State’s jurisdiction may not be denied the equal application of those specific laws. The wording does not forbid a state to make distinctions in law, e.g., based upon sex or age, but whatever laws are adopted by a State with regard to sex or age, the State may not deny to any person, black or white, within its jurisdiction, the equal application of those specific laws. The laws must be enforced equally upon all, e.g., if a distinction in law is made with respect “sex”, which Strangio has identified as a contested subject matter, it must be enforced equally upon any person regardless of race, color or previous condition of slavery.
Nowhere in her argument does Strangio explain how any person is actually being denied the equal application of Tennessee’s Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1).
The irrefutable fact is, as written, the law (Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1).) applies equally to “any person”, regardless of race, color or previous condition of slavery, which was the object to be accomplished by the Fourteenth Amendment. And, in addition, the law as it turns out, also applies equally to any person, whether male or female, even though the Fourteenth Amendment allows for distinctions in law based upon sex.
The distinction being made under the law is directed at a minor, considering that the medical procedure in question is life altering, irreversible, and as such, ought to be made after a person transitions from adolescents to an adult, as defined by law.
JWK
“Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else’s game.” ― Evita Ochel