Last year, Tennessee doctors were banned from medically slowing down a teenager’s puberty to alter their gender.  Transgender teen families are suing the state of Tennessee for trying to take away their medical rights. Now, the case is before the U.S. Supreme Court and ended in an oral argument last Wednesday.

Specifically, three trans kids and their families are suing the state for taking away their rights. LW (how they are recorded in legal documents) is one of the listed kids. They said, “People make assumptions. They say it’s just a phase because they don’t know what it’s like…It can certainly feel pretty hopeless.”

LW’s mother, Samantha Williams, slightly disagrees saying, “We kept saying we wouldn’t be good parents if we weren’t taking our time.” LW took almost a year to start gender-affirming treatments and now is much happier. NPR news states that “her once troubled child is an easy and happy teenager” and they owe her happiness to her treatments for gender dysphoria. Now that the Tennessee law bans these medical treatments, LW and their family have to take a 10-hour road trip out of state to get the drugs for their transition.

Jack Johnson, Tennessee state senator, introduced the bill and said, “You can’t get a tattoo in Tennessee unless you’re 18. You can’t smoke. You can’t drink. A number of different types of medical procedures, it felt like this was the best public policy to prevent kids from suffering from irreversible consequences, things that cannot be undone.”

The bill states that minors can only alter their gender if they are at least 18. With the court still in session, there’s not much information on what the outcome may be in this case. The court is expected to decide by next summer.