Florida’s rule to stop minors from undergoing gender transition procedures has now come into effect — and Republican state lawmakers are forging ahead with plans to strengthen the restrictions even further.
The Florida Board of Medicine’s new measure — which took effect Thursday — prohibits the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgeries to treat gender dysphoria for anyone in the Sunshine State under the age of 18.
While kids who were already receiving gender-affirming treatment prior to Thursday can continue to do so, they aren’t able to undergo sex reassignment surgeries under the new rule.
Separately, GOP lawmakers are currently advancing a bill through the Florida Senate that’ll make it a felony to provide any such gender-affirming care to minors, as well as ban state funds from being used to cover the same care for adults.
A companion bill has also been introduced in the state House.
Ahead of the gender ban taking effect, Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his position after President Biden gave an interview saying Florida’s new rule was “close to sinful.”
“It’s just terrible what they’re doing,” Biden told “The Daily Show” earlier this week. “It’s not like, you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I wanted to become a man,’ or ‘I want to become a woman’ … I mean, what are they thinking about here?”
“It’s cruel,” the President added.
DeSantis, who is widely expected to run against Biden in 2024, hit back, tweeting: “It is not ‘sinful’ to prohibit the mutilation of minors. It is not acceptable for the federal government to mandate that procedures like sex change operations be allowed for kids.”
The Sunshine State’s rule comes after the Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine first announced in November that they’d approved the new ban —sparking backlash from trans activists who argued the rule contradicted medical evidence.
During tense hearings where opponents and backers of the ban voiced their concerns, Board of Medicine member and pediatric anesthesiologist, Dr. Hector Vila, insisted “hundreds of studies” were reviewed as part of the decision-making process.
He argued that the “overwhelming data does not support” the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
“This board is not against research; it is not against care for transgender children,” Vila added.
Chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine Scot Ackerman said of the decision: “What the board has sought to do is protect our children from therapies that have irreversible harm … So it’s a very limited set of therapies that have been restricted, but this board still wants these patients cared for, absolutely,” according to Orlando Weekly.
Nationally, a handful of other states are also approving similar measures.
GOP legislators in Kentucky overwhelmingly passed a new measure Thursday to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
Kentucky’s new bill also contains sweeping measures that would allow teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns and ban schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age.
Those in support argued they are trying to protect children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments that they might later regret as adults.
“We’re talking about removing healthy body parts that you cannot put back on,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Tichenor said. “I’ve seen the pictures. It’s horrifying.”
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves recently signed a bill to ban gender-affirming hormones or surgery in the state for anyone under 18.
And the Republican governors of South Dakota and Utah also signed bans on gender-affirming care this year.
With Post wires
