Supreme Court to Hear Challenging Transgender Youth Runaway Law
Parents challenging the law claim it interferes with their parental rights by allowing their children to access "protected health services" without their knowledge.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case challenging the constitutionality of a 2023 Washington State law regarding how to respond to transgender youth who run away from home –which critics claim subverts parental rights — during its 2026-2027 term.
The high court will review a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a lower court’s dismissal of International Partners for Ethical Care, Inc. v. Ferguson, a case challenging the law’s constitutionality.
The 2023 law requires operators of emergency shelters contact the state, rather than a minor’s parents, if they run away due to a need for “protected” health care, including gender-affirming care or reproductive health care.
Under the law, any youth shelter provider who knows that the minor is away from a lawfully prescribed residence or home, without the permission of their parents, is required to promptly report the child’s location, and their physical and emotional condition, to their parents within 72 hours — preferably within 24 hours, and work towards achieving family reunification.
However, if there are compelling reasons not to notify the parent, such as possible abuse or risk of harm to the minor, the shelter or organization housing the youth must instead notify the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families. In those cases, the department allows youth to remain in stable, emergency housing and can make referrals for youth who are seeking out or receiving protected health care services.
As part of the appeal, the plaintiffs in the case — which include two organizations that oppose gender-affirming care for minors and several parents of children — have asked the high court to also examine related state guidelines for reuniting runaway youth with their families, and a longstanding state law that allows children as young as 13 to receive outpatient treatment without a parent or guardian’s consent.
As reported by the Washington State Standard, opponents of the law have mischaracterized the shelter law as an attempt by the state to seize custody of children whose parents object to them receiving gender-affirming care, with the plaintiffs in the case claiming it infringes on their parental rights by “hiding” their children from them and keeping them in the dark about decisions regarding their children’s health.
But as The Associated Press previously reported, the law does not address custody and will not result in children being forcibly removed from the home. Rather, the bill is primarily concerned with ensuring that youth who have run away or been kicked out by their parents can remain in shelters.
In its ruling last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, ruling that the parents bringing the lawsuit cannot sue until their children have actually run away and are being affected by the laws they seek to challenge — rather than a mere hypothetical situation that has not yet occurred.
But the group supporting the plaintiffs, America First Legal — founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller — argued that the Supreme Court must take up the case, claiming that the 9th Circuit’s decision “forces parents to wait until severe, permanent damage to their child has already occurred before parents may bring the matter to court.”
If you've known a true sociopath, it's likely you'll recognize the type among the three hyper-ambitious grad students in Aurin Squire's wicked new comedy My Favorite Sociopath.
Making its world premiere at the venerable Contemporary American Theater Festival, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia -- in a solid production directed by Céline Rosenthal -- the play pits the three aspiring journalists against each other for a plum job at a newspaper. And the competition gets dirty.
The tactics used by one or more of them to steal an advantage might be described as amoral. Their behavior could certainly be seen as sociopathic.
An LGBTQ organizer suffered a black eye after a man struck her in the face with a flagpole at a Pride event in Cary, North Carolina.
Sara Buxton, owner of The Night Market Company, which curates open-air markets throughout North Carolina's Triangle region, was hosting the Alphabet Soup Pride Market at Downtown Cary Park on June 13.
In a video posted to Instagram, Buxton said the event had been successful until a shirtless man she described as an "agitator" began running through the crowd carrying an American flag on a metal flagpole.
Buxton said she asked the man to put on a shirt before re-entering the event. She alleges he responded by striking her in the face with the flagpole while hurling homophobic slurs.
For all the pre-release chatter about who Christopher Nolan cast as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey, the casting that matters most in the filmmaker's sweeping adaptation of Homer's epic poem is not the beauty whom legend claims was hatched from an egg.
Odysseus is the part that makes or breaks this movie, and for that, Nolan tapped Matt Damon. So, does the actor's performance evoke "ancient Greek ruler?"
Not really, but Damon wields his no-nonsense, can-do persona dependably well portraying the Greek King of Ithaca whose years-long trek home from the Trojan War sees him crossing swords with countless foes, and crossing paths with a colossal, man-eating Cyclops.
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