It’s Pride month in the good ol’ U.S. of A. in 2025, and that means the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it is terminating the government’s LGBTQ+ suicide prevention hotline and, also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold Tennessee’s ban gender-affirming care for children—a terrible decision with seismic implications for young people suffering gender dysphoria and seeking clinically proven and universally medically backed help to live authentically.
San Francisco Pride Executive Director and trans activist Suzanne Ford expressed the sentiments of many in the LGBTQ+ community about the decision. “This will be remembered as one of the worst Supreme Court rulings in history,” she said in a statement.
“This is the worst affront to the equal protection clause since Plessy versus Ferugson established ‘separate but equal’ for racial segregation. The court claims the ‘case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates’ but really gives political whims the same weight as scientific research. When this is overturned in a generation people will remember the ignorance and the disfunction of this so-called Supreme Court.”
“It was a gut punch,” Ford told me over the phone later Wednesday evening. “I am just in pain for young people who have come out bravely, talked openly with family and doctors, and stood up for themselves—to suddenly know that that can all be taken away from them. It’s not a nightmare—it’s worse, because this is real life.
“The science is in. Gender-affirming care is life-saving. And trans kids who can live as their true selves and have at least one loving parent do phenomenally. I read Justice Roberts’ opinion, and it is such a muddle of science and so-called morality that it’s ridiculous. It really shows where this country is at right now.”
As the SF Pride parade and celebration approaches June 28-29, I asked how the Supreme Court decision would affect the event. “I think this is really a time to unite around the fact that this oppression of our community is very real.
“People have a lot of different opinions about what is going on in the world right now. You can have different views and you can have different opinions about things. But this shows that we need to unify around the fact that oppression is wrong. Discrimination is wrong. And we need to stand up to that together.”
