🚨 SCOTUS refused to extend Bostock—but it also didn't gut it. That matters, a lot.

Yesterday, in U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court held that states can constitutionally prohibit puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender teenagers, rejecting a Equal Protection challenge to the law. It's a dangerous decision. Because of the votes of six Supreme Court justices, many children will suffer and some will even die.

The Court also refused to extend Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII protects LGBTQ+ employees from workplace discrimination "because of sex."

Yet, there is hope from this opinion. The Court could have used Skrmetti to start walking back Bostock. It didn't. In fact, it went out of its way to distinguish Bostock without undermining its holding.

Chief Justice Roberts made it clear in his majority opinion: Bostock remains good law in the Title VII employment context. Justice Thomas wrote separately to criticize it—but no one else joined him. Not Alito. Not Barrett. And not Gorsuch, who wrote Bostock and signed on here without a blink. That quiet solidarity matters, especially now.

Because while SCOTUS isn't ready to overturn Bostock, the executive branch is doing everything it can to ignore it. Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas is pushing a biologically-defined definition of sex under Title VII that flatly rejects Bostock. Meanwhile, the White House is issuing executive order after executive order that erase protections for transgender Americans under the guise of "biological reality."

With Bostock as the last meaningful firewall for LGBTQ+ workers, it is imperative that its federal protections—alongside those in 25 states and D.C.—remain entrenched and uncompromised.

While we mourn the rights stripped from transgender youth, we take heart in the continued protection of LGBTQ+ workers. And that's not nothing.

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The Trump Administration announced this week that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will shut down its LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program on July 17.

If you are an LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, support is still available. The Trevor Project offers access to trained crisis counselors 24/7/365. Call 1-866-488-7386, visit TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or text START to 678678.