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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will decide whether a group of parents can challenge Washington state laws protecting transgender runaway children.The parents, along with two national organizations, say the laws allow minors to seek medical care without their parents’ consent or knowledge.State officials describe the laws as “modest steps to address the crisis of transgender youth homelessness.”Lower courts dismissed the challenge, ruling the parents hadn’t shown they have been harmed by the laws or are likely to be.The Supreme Court on June 29 said it will review that decision.The case is the latest involving transgender issues that the court has agreed to hear in recent years, and the first centered on parents' rights to be involved in a child’s gender identity transition.Under amendments to Washington state laws passed in 2023, shelters don’t have to notify parents whose children seek gender-affirming treatment and reproductive health services if shelter workers fear doing so could lead to parental abuse or neglect.In addition to challenging those rules, the five sets of parents trying to sue also object to a long-standing state law that allows adolescents to consent to outpatient mental health treatment.The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the sequences of events that would have to happen for the parents suing to be harmed by the law is too convoluted for them to be able to claim their constitutional rights have been violated.The court rejected the argument that because the parents have children who experience gender dysphoria and socially transitioned at school, “one may infer that at least one child is likely to run away in the future.”In their appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the parents called that a “miserly interpretation” of a procedural rule about when someone can sue. And courts are misinterpreting the rule, they said, to avoid contentious constitutional issues.“Petitioners must have standing to challenge these laws before irreversible harm befalls their children,” they argued.The court is expected to hear the case in the term that begins in October and issue a decision by next summer.
