FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is a group of 82 conservative lawmakers (from state legislatures across the country) who recently filed a 42-page brief advocating for a total ban on gender-affirming care. The brief is in collaboration with the far-right Christian fundamentalist American Family Association and is with regard to the Supreme Court case The United States v. Skrmetti.
U.S. v. Skrmetti concerns Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, signed into law in March of last year, which implemented a total ban on gender-affirming care for minors across the state. The district court and appeals court both allowed the ban to go into effect, and the Supreme Court will serve as the final authority on the matter. The case will likely have sweeping effects on how gender-affirming care and other types of health care, such as abortion, are regulated throughout the nation’s future. U.S. v. Skrmetti stems from a pair of Tennessee parents and their 15-year-old transgender daughter challenging the malicious state law.
The sizable group of Republican legislators filing the brief collaborated with the notorious American Family Association (AFA), an anti-LGBTQ-plus hate group, to file a “friend of the court” brief arguing that the Supreme Court should uphold Tennessee’s statewide ban on all gender-affirming care for minors. (Last week, our “theocrat” was also the senior counsel for the AFA’s political advocacy arm.)
The 42-page brief repeatedly and shamelessly cites the bible and Christianity. As many as 11 bible verses are directly referenced within the brief, and the authors argue that the biblical and classical tradition influenced the Founding Fathers. They contend that the Founders and God should be supreme authorities on legal matters in the United States.
“AFA’s vision is to see a society of citizens successfully preserving life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness,” the brief reads. “Central to that mission and vision are these principles: God created every human being, male and female, as free and morally responsible bearers of his image.” Here, the authors are seemingly arguing that transgender people are “morally responsible” not to be transgender.
Transgender advocacy is depicted as “identity politics,” and the leading medical organizations that attest to the legitimacy of gender-affirming care and the transgender community as a whole are derided as the “scientific establishment.” Instead, the lawmakers argue that trans children and teenagers should have “self-control” for their “passions” and “impulses,” meaning their gender identities. Gender-affirming care is called “medically assisted self-harm” because it does not adhere to the authors’ Christian worldview.
The brief asserts that Tennessee’s SB 1 is not discriminatory because the total ban on gender-affirming care is based on age and “mental state” and urges the Supreme Court to unquestionably uphold Tennessee’s dangerous ban on gender-affirming care.
The 82 anti-transgender, conservative legislators across the country include past FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrats of the Week,” such as Idaho state Rep. Elaine Price, former Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert, Missouri state Sen. Mike Moon and Ohio state Rep. Beth Lear. The other politicians featured included many anti-transgender voices that continually spew hate across the nation. We support the crucial access to gender-affirming care nationwide and implore the Supreme Court to not side with hate.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.