The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines that stands to impact similar laws passed in roughly half the country. 

Rejecting a challenge mounted by the Biden administration, the high court ruled Tennessee’s law does not amount to sex discrimination that requires a higher level of constitutional scrutiny, removing a key line of attack that LGBTQ rights advocates have used to try to topple similar laws.

“Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the court’s six Republican-appointed justices.

The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented, saying they would’ve held the law to heightened scrutiny. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the more exacting standard raises questions about whether Tennessee’s law would survive. She read her dissent aloud from the bench, which the justices reserve for emphasizing their strong disagreements with a case. 

“By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent,” Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. 

Tennessee’s law, S.B. 1, prohibits health care providers from administering puberty blockers or hormone therapy to transgender minors when the medications are prescribed to help them transition. The law, which Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed in 2023, also bans gender-transition surgeries for minors, though that provision was not at issue before the high court. Providers who violate the law can face $25,000 civil fines for violations. 

Three Tennessee families and a doctor originally sued, and the Biden administration joined them, asserting the law discriminated based on sex in violation of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. 

The high court rejected that notion, instead siding with Tennessee. The state insisted the law distinguishes based on a treatment’s medical purpose, not sex, and the court should defer to the Legislature’s judgment about regulating medicine for children. 

“This case carries a simple lesson: In politically contentious debates over matters shrouded in scientific uncertainty, courts should not assume that self-described experts are correct,” Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the court’s leading conservatives, wrote in a separate, concurring opinion. 

Tennessee’s Republican Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated the court’s ruling Wednesday, saying voters’ “common sense” prevailed over “judicial activism.”

 “A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee’s elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand,” Skrmetti wrote in a statement following the ruling.

“The rapid and unexplained rise in the number of kids seeking these life-altering interventions, despite the lack of supporting evidence, calls for careful scrutiny from our elected leaders,” he continued later. “This victory transcends politics. It’s about real Tennessee kids facing real struggles. Families across our state and our nation deserve solutions based on science, not ideology.”

He added, “Today’s landmark decision recognizes that the Constitution lets us fulfill society’s highest calling—protecting our kids.” 

Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said Tuesday’s ruling “is a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution.”

“Though this is a painful setback, it does not mean that transgender people and our allies are left with no options to defend our freedom, our health care, or our lives,” said Strangio, who, during oral arguments in December, became the first openly transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court. “The Court left undisturbed Supreme Court and lower court precedent that other examples of discrimination against transgender people are unlawful.  We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve.” 

The Biden administration was backed by various medical organizations and LGBTQ rights groups, Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and Washington, D.C., actor Elliot Page, roughly 160 Democratic members of Congress and the American Bar Association. 

Tennessee’s defense was supported by 24 Republican state attorneys general, various Republican governors, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a group of “detransitioners” — individuals who once, but no longer, identified as transgender — and conservative organizations like Advancing American Freedom, founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. 

Trump’s Justice Department abandoned the Biden administration’s challenge to the state’s law upon taking office. But the new administration urged the Supreme Court to still decide the case, warning the weighty issue would otherwise quickly return to the justices. 

Wednesday’s decision comes as the White House seeks to restrict access to gender-affirming treatments more broadly. 

Trump, who signed an executive order in February to end federal support for transition-related care for minors, has also called for federal legislation to that effect, instructing Congress at a joint address in March to pass a bill “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.” 

In May, the Department of Health and Human Services broke with major professional medical organizations, which have said gender-affirming care for trans youths and adults is medically necessary, in an unsigned report that declared such interventions lack scientific evidence. 

Updated at 11:38 a.m. EDT

These camps are run by Gargoyle Athletics since 2006.

Their top-quality staff are NYS Certified PE Teachers, who hold current First Aid/CPR Certification and have over 50+ coaching experience!

Learn more about Gargoyle Athletics at www.gargoyleathletics.net

To register: Please send email to Drew Wendol at wendolworldwide@gmail.com
or call Lisa O’Reilly at 478-2380 or via email at loreilly@hohny.gov
Questions: Email Drew Wendol @ wendolworldwide@gmail.com or Michael Bryant @ cortlandlax8@yahoo.com

Make Checks Payable to: WWA or cash. or Venmo: @Drew-wendol
Mail to: Village of Hastings Recreation Department,44 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg interacts with the youngsters yesterday on day two of the Basketball Smiles camp at Kendal Isaacs Gym. Photo: Jonathan Burrows

By JONATHAN BURROWS

DAY two of the Basketball Smiles camp brought both energy and inspiration as campers were provided with intense skill development sessions, along with an appearance by the Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture Mario Bowleg.

The day kicked off yesterday at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium where the female group engaged in high-tempo drills focused on ball movement and defensive footwork. 

Coaches emphasised communication and hustle, while players rotated through the indoor and outdoor courts, encountering drills that challenged both fundamentals and fitness.

The mid-day intermission allowed campers from the morning session to take a break as their session came to a close while being provided with light refreshments. 

At this time, campers for the second session began to gather at the gym as they prepared themselves for the afternoon session.

The highlight of the day came during the afternoon session with the male group, when Bowleg addressed the campers. Drawing from his experience as a coach before becoming a minister, Bowleg spoke about keeping passion alive, how the game of basketball can change lives, and how important it is for camps like Basketball Smiles to exist for the youth of the Bahamas. 

“It does great things for the youth,” said Bowleg about the benefits of having experienced and fundamentally trained coaches lending a helping hand to develop the youth in the Bahamas.

Campers listened intently as he shared personal anecdotes about his time coaching and stressed the importance of discipline to remain focused and stay on course. 

“Coaching and development from coaches from the states help enhance the potential of kids in the Bahamas looking to pursue a professional basketball career,” answered Bowleg when explaining how having experienced coaches from the United States can impact young up-and-coming athletes looking to pursue basketball as a profession.

As the day wrapped up for the male session with a scrimmage, the energy remained high, and the message of Mario Bowlegs’ visit echoed through the gym. 

With more surprises and competition ahead, day two set the tone of growth both on and off the court.

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (WAND) – A youth sports complex was badly damaged due to strong storms on Wednesday afternoon. 

Online pictures and videos of the Future Champions Sports Complex on Keely Street shows extensive damage to buildings around the park. Debris was scattered across a number of ball fields and several items tore down protective nets. 

Storage and maintenance buildings across the street from the complex were also badly damaged. 

A tornado warning was issued for the area around 11:45 a.m. as strong storms moved into Illinois from the west and southwest. 

The National Weather Service will survey the damage later to determine the cause. It’s possible the damage was created by straight-line winds. 

It’s unclear if there are any injuries following the storms in Morgan County. Attempts to reach the Jacksonville/Morgan County Emergency Management office were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon. 

Power outages reached at least 6,200 customers on Wednesday at 1:15 p.m., according to the Ameren Outage Map. 

Severe storms in central Illinois spawned numerous tornado warnings. According to poweroutage.us, nearly 14,000 customers were without power in the entire state as of 1:25 p.m. Wednesday. 

Storms have been producing small tornadoes, hail, damaging winds, and heavy downpours. The storms are moving quickly to the east and northeast. 

Copyright 2025. WANDTV. All Rights Reserved.

Every day, either after school or throughout the summer, you can find 16-year-old Kyra Nelson at Portland Rock Gym in Beaverton.

She’s doing fingertip pull-ups. She’s climbing boulders. And she’s training, two to five hours daily, for the upcoming USA Climbing Youth National Championships.

Hundreds of the country’s best young rock climbers will be in Beaverton June 26 through July 2 for the national championship, hosted at Portland Rock Gym’s westside location. Top finishers will represent the U.S. at the International Federation of Sport Climbing Youth World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Roughly 650 youth athletes, ages 13 to 19, have already registered for the event, including 39 athletes from Oregon.

Among those hopefuls is Nelson, a sophomore at Horizon Christian High School in Tualatin. She took first place in bouldering at the Region 12 Regional Championships and third place in the Divisional Championships.

This is Nelson’s fourth year as a competitive rock climber and her first time competing at nationals.

“I’m a bit nervous because everyone’s going to be really good,” Nelson said. “It’s going to be the top 50 girls in my age, and they’re all going to be the best.”

Competitive sport climbing is broken up into three disciplines: bouldering, in which climbers reach up to 18 feet without ropes; lead climbing, which involves ropes and walls that rise some 60 feet into the air; and speed climbing, in which two climbers race to the top of identical 49-foot walls.

Nelson competes in bouldering. Climbers get four minutes to assess and climb a rock wall the highest they can. There are no ropes, and thick mats protect climbers from falls.

“You definitely want to be flexible, you want really strong fingers, and you want to have strong legs,” Nelson said.

Charlotte Wylde, 18 and a recent graduate of Portland’s Franklin High School, will be competing in her fifth youth nationals in lead climbing. Last year, she placed third at nationals and earned a spot on the U.S. team that competed at the 2024 world championships in Guiyang, China.

“ It would just feel nice to get into the same place that I was last year, and I think I obviously just want to finish out my youth climbing career on a nice note,” Wylde said.

As a young kid, Wylde loved climbing trees, streetlights, walls – all sorts of things, eventually prompting her poor mom to enroll her in a gym climbing program.

“What I really like is the fight or flight response that you get on the wall, where you can’t really climb down, but it’s really, really hard to go up, and you have to choose to fight a little bit,” Wylde said. “Even though it’s this excruciating and scary moment, it’s also just really beautiful when you choose to fight.”

This is the first time Portland Rock Gym is hosting the youth national championships, and it’s happening at the gym’s 65,000-square-foot Beaverton location that opened last year.

“It is possibly the second largest of all the climbing gyms in America,” said gym owner Gary Rall. “It is certainly the largest in the Pacific Northwest, that’s for sure.”

Sport climbing has taken off since its start in the late 1980s.

Portland Rock Gym was the country’s second indoor rock-climbing gym when it opened its original location in 1988. (Seattle’s Vertical World was the country’s first when it opened in 1987.)

There are now 667 climbing gyms in the U.S., according to Climbing Business Journal.

“The first decade or so, it was pretty much 100% outdoor rock climbers just coming in the winter when the weather was foul and it got dark really early,” Rall said. “Now, 75% of all indoor climbers stay indoors, and only 25% of them go outside.”

The governing body for the sport, USA Climbing, was founded in 1998. Sport climbing first appeared as a discretionary sport at the 2020 summer Olympics. It will become a mandatory Olympic sport – meaning, part of the core offerings not up to the discretion of the host city – starting in 2028.

Portland Rock Gym now has two locations: one at Northeast 12th Avenue and Burnside in Portland, and the massive Beaverton gym just north of U.S. 26.

The Beaverton space has two yoga studios, a fitness studio, saunas and a rope hall with a 72-foot-long cliff wall climbers call “The Beast.”

“We look at this facility as an athletic club for climbers,” Rall said.

The amenities have drawn more climbers to indoor facilities, Rall said, but Nelson prefers indoor climbing for an even simpler reason.

“I don’t like bugs and spiders,” she said. “So, reaching my hands in the holds? I just don’t know what’s going to be in there.”

The public is invited to watch the USA Climbing youth championships at Portland Rock Gym’s Beaverton location, 10860 S.W. Barnes Road, starting June 26. Spectator day passes are $27 to $33 and can be purchased online via Eventbrite.