Supreme Court hears Tennessee transgender care case: updates, analysis, listen live

Brian Williams of Nashville, Tennessee, says his transgender daughter, L.W., has to travel to another state to receive the health care that “we and her doctors know is right for her.”

Williams, speaking on a Zoom call arranged by the legal team representing the family and others at the Supreme Court, said L.W. approached him and his wife, Samantha, several years ago to share “honestly and openly her pain” over her gender identity.

She began taking puberty-blocking drugs at age 13 and started hormone therapy a year later, Williams says.

Today, her father says, she is a “16-year-old planning for her future, making her own music and looking at colleges.”

Williams says he’s not expecting people to understand everything about the family. But he asks others to “open your hearts and listen.”