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Re: “AG Skrmetti: TN transgender minor care law is about regulation not discrimination,” by Jonathan Skrmetti, Dec. 4 (online), Dec. 8 (print).

In his defense of S.B. 1 which bans transgender minor care, Skrmetti writes, “As Tennesseans, we’ve always believed in putting children first…Tennessee has always had the right, and the solemn obligation, to protect its kids.”

Really Mr. AG? If that is what you and our super majority Republican legislators truly believe, why is it that Tennessee has continually scored miserably in the national Kids Count data?

For the year 2023 here is our state’s national ranking for the key markers associated with children’s wellbeing: Education 30th, Health 41st, Family and Community 38th. Does that sound like a state that believes in putting children first? I do not recall any of these topics being highlighted during the recent campaign season, and certainly no one suggested concrete steps to fix them.

Skrmetti spends his entire column attacking these “life-altering medical procedures,” which he believes “can cause kids great and irreversible physical harm.”

And yet according to another columnist, during legislative hearings no Tennessean claimed harm. Let’s just call this for what it is: fear of trans gender identity, which is clearly misunderstood by Skrmetti and others in the legislature.

One last point. While there are sincere and honest questions about minor transgender care, nowhere in his column does our AG acknowledge that the courts have routinely upheld the existence of constitutionally protected sovereign parental rights. We should be very careful about allowing our state government to interfere with these rights.

Thomas Riss, Mt. Juliet 37122

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