SEATTLE — Organizations opposed to gender-affirming care for youths and a group of parents are suing Washington to challenge a new law meant to help transgender teens experiencing homelessness or fleeing hostile family conditions.
Senate Bill 5599, which was signed into law this year and took effect last month, exempts youth shelters and state-funded host homes from contacting parents directly if a child age 13 to 18 is seeking or receiving gender-affirming treatment or reproductive care.
Supporters say the law, the first such protection of its kind in the country, helps kids in crisis remain indoors and safe while seeking life-saving health care. Opponents argue it infringes on parents’ rights to oversee the care and upbringing of their children.
America First Legal, a conservative legal group headed by former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, filed the federal suit Wednesday. The group represents eight Washington parents and two organizations — Illinois-based International Partners for Ethical Care Inc. and Virginia-based Advocates Protecting Children.
“America First Legal is leading the courtroom charge against radical transgenderism and the sexual exploitation of our children by militant gender activists,” Miller said in a statement. “No state action more frighteningly illustrates the threat to our children than this law.”
The plaintiffs argue SB 5599 “discriminatorily deprives certain parents — but not all parents — of their fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution to direct the care and upbringing of their children, as well as their rights to the free exercise of religion, due process, free speech and equal protection.”
The lawsuit names Gov. Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and state Department of Children, Youth and Families Secretary Ross Hunter as defendants in their capacity as state officials.
Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for Inslee’s office, said in a statement the lawsuit seems to be based on “the same basic falsehoods that anti-trans groups have been pushing since the law was proposed.”
“The purpose of the bill is to keep youth safe and off the streets,” he said.
In a statement, Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office, said “Our office defends laws passed by the people and their representative’s in the Legislature. We generally prevail in these cases.”
State law previously required shelters notify parents within 72 hours when a child arrives, except when there’s evidence of abuse or neglect. SB 5599 added another exemption — if the child is seeking or receiving “protected health care services” including abortions, reproductive medicine and gender-affirming treatment.
The state defines gender-affirming treatment as a service or product that a health care provider prescribes to an individual to support and affirm the individual’s gender identity.
SB 5599 doesn’t change existing medical consent laws in the state. Washington’s age of consent for gender-affirming surgery without approval from a parent or guardian is 18. Under state law, any child 13 or older can receive mental health care without an adult’s permission.
Under the new law, instead of directly notifying parents, shelter staff in these cases must notify the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, which must then make a “good faith attempt” to notify parents, according to the law. The law does not prohibit the department from sharing information with a parent or guardian.
State social workers can then offer to make referrals on behalf of the child for mental health services, and offer services to facilitate a reunification, if possible.
“It allows DCYF to talk to the child, to do an evaluation of what the degree of their physical safety is,” said Denise Diskin, litigation and sustainability director of the QLaw Foundation of Washington.
Prior to the law being passed, shelter staff said LGBTQ+ kids and pregnant children would sometimes leave after the 72 hours were up because they didn’t want to reconnect with their family, Diskin said. That meant children living on the street, or finding precarious and dangerous living conditions.
“That’s a terrifying prospect for a 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-year-old to be facing,” Diskin said. “Kids deserve an opportunity to get access to supportive services and reunification.”
Plaintiffs argued the law incentivizes children to run away “because they can obtain health care services they desire without parental permission.” Several of the plaintiffs have “dealt with potential runaway children,” according to the suit.
In one case detailed in the lawsuit, two plaintiffs, a mother and father, say they have two transgender children who have threatened to run away, in large part because the parents do not use the childrens’ preferred names and pronouns, the lawsuit stated.
In another case, a couple who are also plaintiffs say their child was encouraged at school to transition, in part because of a meeting their child had with a school counselor, the lawsuit stated. After the parents pulled the child out of public school, the child “de-transitioned,” according to the suit. The parents believe when they send their child back to school in the fall, they “will transition again and run away from home.”
Those situations are exactly why the new law is necessary in the first place, said Jaelynn Scott, executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, a Seattle-based LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization. The law provides a layer of scrutiny and care for children, protecting vulnerable youths from experiencing homelessness or risking self-harm, Scott said.
“If a child is leaving their homes and running away, it’s an indication of trouble,” Scott said. “It’s up to all of us to ensure that children who take the serious step, and the extreme step, of running away from home [are] living in a safe environment.”
LGBTQ+ youths disproportionately experience homelessness. A 2018 study from the University of Chicago found young adults ages 18 to 25 who identify as LGBTQ experienced homelessness within the last year at over twice the rate of their heterosexual, cisgender peers.
A 2022 survey from the Trevor Project found among people ages 13 to 24, 38% of transgender girls and women, 39% of transgender boys and men, and 35% of nonbinary people reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives.
That study also found 16% of LGBTQ teens and young adults reported having run away from home, with more than half reporting they ran away because of mistreatment or fear of mistreatment due to their LGBTQ identity. About one in seven reported they had been kicked out or abandoned, with 40% reporting it was because of their LGBTQ identity.
