Supreme court cases on lgbtq rights in schools
In The Courts
Court Cases
LGBTQ Youth
50 LGBTQ Youth Cases
Jul 2025
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton
Whether a content-based regulation that burdens adults’ access to protected speech has to be merely reasonable to satisfy the First Amendment because it was passed in the name of protecting children from sexual material online.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
Scout case
Jul 2025
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton
Whether a content-based code that burdens adults’ access to protected speech has to be merely logical to satisfy the First Amendment because it was passed in the entitle of protecting children from sexual material online.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
Cross v. Articulate of Montana
Transgender adolescents, their parents, and two medical providers who serve with transgender youth are challenging a 2023 Montana regulation that bans gender-affirming care for transsexual youth. The plaintiffs charge the statute with violating their rights under the Montana Constitution
The decision in Skrmetti v. U.S. is not the end of the road. We can, and must, show up for trans youth in the courts and in our communities.
The judgment in Skrmetti v. U.S. is not the finish of the road. We can, and must, display up for trans youth in the courts and in our communities.
Last week, the Supreme Court dealt a devastating inflate to trans youth, their families and the communities that support them. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Skrmetti v. U.S. that SB1— Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors —does not illegally discriminate against individuals on the basis of sex or transgender status. This allows Tennessee, and any other states that may pick to follow its discriminatory lead, to ban medically-necessary health care for minors.
As one of the Tennessee parents challenging this forbid put it, “the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday will make it even harder for our daughter to get lifesaving health care. It will damage the lawsuit’s unnamed families and those that arrive after us, with younger kids just starting to understand and express themselves.”
This is a blow for trans youth who simply want to grow up healthy, supported, and seen. It
What the Supreme Court Case on LGBTQ+ Books Reminds Us About Parents’ Rights
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could profoundly reshape parents’ rights and curriculum decisions in public schools. Legally, Mahmoud v. Taylor asks whether public schools burden parents’ First Amendment right to religious freedoms by introducing students to content with which their parents disagree.
Attempting to resolve these types of issues through constitutional adjudication risks bypassing the intimate, local, relational, and pedagogically rich contexts in which public education operates and thrives. The court’s ruling, which is expected next month, will likely favor one side over the other—and therefore may silence the very conversations that help schools and families navigate differences with understanding and respect.
Prompted by the inclusion of books in elementary school classrooms, parents of students in the Montgomery County, Md., district are suing for the right to opt their children out of exposure to books they view as infringing on their rights. The college board, which oversees one of the nation’s most religiously diverse districts, approved sever
7 Supreme Court Cases That shaped LGBTQ Rights
The LGBTQ movement in America dates back at least as far as the 1920s, when the first documented gay rights organization was founded. The Society for Human Rights only survived for about a year before it was disbanded in 1925, but its mark was left on our country.
Increased visibility and activism of LGBTQ individuals since the 1970s has helped the movement make progress on multiple fronts. Just as advocates fought their battle in American culture, they also did so in the courts. Here, we look at a limited cases that have shaped LGBTQ rights in America and celebrate some of the milestones of the movement.
1) 1958 One, Inc. v. Olesen
The first Supreme Court case to examine LGBTQ rights had to do with the First Amendment right to independence of speech. A publisher released ONE: The Homosexual Magazine, America’s first widely-distributed magazine for gay readers. Not lengthy after publication began, its August and October editions were seized by Los Angeles postmaster Otto Olesen for supposedly violating obscenity laws. In its verdict, the Supreme Court tossed out a lower court’s ruling and sided with One, Inc. SCOTUS establis
A Term of Injustice: Supreme Court Delivers Unrelenting Inflate to LGBTQ+ Rights in Series of Rulings
by Aryn Fields •
This phrase, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a devastating series of decisions that collectively erode hard-fought Homosexual rights, strip access to essential healthcare, and send a chilling message to queer youth, families, and communities across the country. From the freedom to receive best-practice medical care to the right to an inclusive education that reflect LGBTQ+ lives, the Court’s orders diminish basic protections, reinforce discrimination, and threaten the wellbeing of millions.
The impact of these decisions—across US v. Skrmetti, Mahmoud v. Taylor, and Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic—is sweeping. Together, they create modern barriers to accessing care, compromise inclusive education, and slim the legal avenues available to test state abuses. These decisions do not exist in a vacuum. They appear in the midst of a coordinated political campaign to roll back Gay rights—through federal executive actions, state legislation, school system censorship, book bans, healthcare restrictions, and hateful rhetoric from elected officials.