It’s all about “parents rights” — until it comes to a parent’s right to support their transgender child.
The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that a teenage trans boy cannot legally change his name to something more masculine, citing “lack of maturity.”
The court voted 8-1 Thursday to uphold the ruling issued by Hinds County Chancery Judge Tametrice Hodges in November, 2023 when the boy was 16 years old. The boy, referenced in the case only by the initials S.M.-B. is now either 18 or about to turn 18 based on the filing date of July, 2023. However, the age of majority in Mississippi is 21, meaning he will not be able to obtain a legal name change until 2028.
Minors in Mississippi are legally permitted to change their name with the permission of both their parents, as outlined by the ACLU, which the boy had. The state Supreme Court still ruled that changing his name “as part of a gender transition was not in the [plaintiff’s] best interest due to a lack of maturity,” while consistently misgendering the teen in the filing.
“The petitioner’s primary appellate argument is that the chancellor had no discretion to deny the name-change petition because it was uncontested and both parents agreed,” the majority opinion reads. “But Mississippi law says otherwise.”
The court determined that the petition could be denied not because minors aren’t allowed to legally change their names in Mississippi, but because the denial was “consistent with Mississippi’s express public policy against children receiving life-altering gender-transition assistance.”
The majority cited the so-called Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act, which in 2023 banned medical gender-affirming care — puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and surgeries — for the purpose of gender transition for anyone under 18. However, the plaintiff’s case did not involve his medical transition, but rather his social transition — which includes changes to hair, clothing, name, and pronouns.
This was noted by Justice Leslie King, the sole vote against in the ruling, who wrote in the dissenting opinion that “no medical procedures are at issue in this case.” King also pointed out that nothing in the original case cited the REAP Act, and that the court did not hear testimony from any of the family members. Instead, the trial “court conducted a bench conference off the record, apparently took no evidence, and concluded the hearing thereafter.”
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the World Medical Association, and the World Health Organization all agree that gender-affirming care is evidence-based and medically necessary not just for adults, but minors as well. Several studies show that depression and anxiety is alleviated in youth when they socially transition and receive treatment for gender dysphoria.
“Denial of an adult or minor name change based on transgender identity has been universally rejected in any U.S. jurisdiction in which it has been considered – except Mississippi,” McKenna Gray, LGBTQ Justice Project staff attorney at the ACLU of Mississippi, told The Advocate. “Inserting anti-trans bias into name change law is not only a profound injustice to the individual, but a disheartening setback for all people who value dignity, equality, and the freedom to be who you are.”
“Allowing a chancellor to supersede two parents with no evidence that the name change is against the child’s best interest is enormously disruptive to family integrity, indicating a judge is more qualified to decide a child’s name than their parent,” Gray continued. “This is not the kind of governmental interference we have in Mississippi over family choices.”