Georgetown University students joined hundreds of protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court Dec. 4 for a rally in support of gender-affirming medical treatments as the court heard oral arguments in a high-profile case that challenges a state-level ban on gender-affirming care for minors. 

The case concerns a 2023 Tennessee law which restricts medical treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies and transition surgeries for transgender people under the age of 18, with three families and a doctor challenging the law’s constitutionality in federal court. As the court prepared to hear arguments, protesters both in support of the ban and against the ban attended simultaneous rallies outside the court, with several Georgetown students — including members of Georgetown’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit organization that advocates for civil rights issues, and the Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD) — attending the rally against the ban.

The attorneys in the Court argued the ban should be considered with a more stringent standard because it concerns sex-based distinctions and discriminates against transgender children. Those in support of the ban say the consideration is focused on medical distinctions, not sex.

Reilly Souther (CAS ’27), the advocacy director of GUCD, who attended the rally, said she attended to fight for gender-affirming care. 

“We should listen to the science and we should listen to trans people,” Souther told The Hoya. “Trans health care and gender-affirming care is important and necessary, and I don’t think we should be making people’s lives a buzz issue just for political agenda.”

At the rally against the ban, speakers included Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.); Mariah Moore, the co-deputy director of programs and policy at Transgender Law Center, a transgender-led organization that focuses on civil rights issues; and actress and comedian Ilana Glazer.

Markey said those who oppose the ban should take meaningful action to fight against it.

“Freedom is not inevitable; it is fought for by people who say ‘no’ in the face of discrimination, ‘no’ in the face of invasive laws that seek to limit what health care you can get and ‘no’ to the anti-justice and anti-freedom agenda driving attacks on gender-affirming care,” Markey said at the rally.

Chase Strangio, an attorney at the ACLU who argued the case against the ban, becoming the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the high court, said the transgender community must fight together.

“Our fight for justice did not begin today; it will not end in June,” Strangio said at the rally. “Whatever the court decides, we are in this together; our power only grows.”

Nico Cefalu (CAS ’27), a Georgetown ACLU member who attended the rally, said many of the speakers also spoke to the transgender community’s historical fight for recognition.

“A lot of the speakers spoke to the idea that this isn’t anything new for them,” Cefalu told The Hoya. “They’ve been at the front of persecution since the beginning of time, so they’re just willing to wait a little while longer if that’s what it takes to become recognized.”

At the simultaneous rally in support of the ban, speakers including Matt Walsh, a podcast host for conservative media company The Daily Wire; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.); and Chloe Cole, an activist against gender-affirming surgery who de-transitioned. The speakers mentioned children’s safety and the biology used to defend the movement against gender-affirming care. 

According to research from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, gender-affirming care generally improves the mental health and overall well-being of transgender adolescents.

Vikram Valame (MSB ’27), a Georgetown ACLU member who attended the court proceedings, said the government’s main argument is that the classification is sex-based.

“The government and plaintiffs really don’t want the court to consider the medical evidence right now,” Valame told The Hoya. “They want the court to say this is sex-based classification.”

Legal commentators believe the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will likely uphold the ban.

Azariah Kurlantzick, a Maryland native who attended the rally against the ban with his parents, said he believes the court will side with supporters of the ban. 

“I’m not feeling optimistic, to be honest,” Kurlantzick told The Hoya. “But I’m glad that whatever happens, people can look back and see that people were here today.”

Markey said in his speech that a nation founded on equality must uphold the civil rights and equality of transgender people in the United States.

“A nation that stands for the principle that all people are created equal, that we are all endowed with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, will affirm and uphold civil rights and equality for transgender Americans,” Markey said in his speech.