Several controversial LGBTQ+ bills teed up for Gov. DeSantis to sign

The Senate and House on Tuesday formally sent bills to Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prevent doctors from offering treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors and expand a law that restricts instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

The bills were among the most controversial issues of the 2023 legislative session, which ended May 5.

The Senate website listed them among numerous bills formally sent Tuesday to DeSantis.

At the DeSantis administration’s urging, the state Board of Medicine and the state Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved rules that prevent doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and specific surgical procedures to transgender minors. One of the bills (SB 254) would go further by putting a prohibition on the treatments into state law.

Gender dysphoria, which the federal government defines clinically as “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.”

Gender-affirming health care for transgender individuals is supported by most major accredited medical organizations.

Under the rules, minors currently being treated with puberty blockers or hormone therapies would be allowed to continue the treatment for now. But parents of trans kids who are transitioning socially and haven’t begun such treatments or who are currently using medical treatment expressed concern about their children’s futures.

READ: Florida lawmakers seek to ban gender-affirming care for transgender kids, punish doctors involved

DeSantis, who is widely seen as a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has elevated the issue of treatment for transgender youths. As an example, he has referred to surgeries on transgender minors as “genital mutilation,” though experts have said the surgeries are exceptionally rare.

Board of Medicine member Hector Vila said the boards, which regulate physicians, thoroughly explored the issue before concluding the therapies are not supported by their own independent evidence.

“I’m sorry it’s uncomfortable. We’re in an uncomfortable situation. I feel like there’s a lot of the public thinks I dislike them. Not at all,” he began, interrupted by many jeers from the audience. “We can’t even make a sincere comment, and it’s hurtful to us … This isn’t about politics. This is about the information we reviewed, the testimony we’ve listened to, and the narrow set of circumstances in which we’re trying to protect the children.”

The LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida issued a news release about the bill in March that said it would “strip families of their medical freedom, put the government in control of insurance coverage decisions, and codify a ban on transgender people being legally recognized as themselves.”

“Transgender people are neighbors, friends, family members,” Nikole Parker, Equality Florida’s director of transgender equality, said in a prepared statement. “We exist and we matter. This bill to rip away lifesaving health care, shred insurance coverage and bar birth certificate access will cost lives.”

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The Republican-controlled Legislature also passed a bill (HB 1069) that would expand a 2022 law that barred instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through eighth grade. Democrats argued the measure is an effort to “legislate away the gay” in the state.

Supporters titled the 2022 law “Parental Rights in Education,” but opponents dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Teachers and other school employees under the new law would be prohibited from telling students their preferred pronouns and barred from asking them about their preferred pronouns.

LGBTQ+ advocates and Democrats like Jacksonville State Representative Angie Nixon were dealt a blow when an amendment that would have allowed parents to request their children to use alternative pronouns in school failed.

The bill also would build on another controversial 2022 law that increased scrutiny of school-library books and instructional materials. The bill, in part, would take steps to make the process of objecting to books and instructional materials easier.

For example, the bill would require that forms used for objecting to books be “easy to read and understand” and be readily accessible on school districts’ websites.

In instances where an objection is made based on possible pornographic content or material that “describes sexual conduct,” the bill would require the materials to be removed from schools within five days of the objection and “remain unavailable to students of that school until the objection is resolved.”

READ: LGBTQ groups decry new Florida bill they describe as ‘Don’t Say Gay 2.0′

“Every family is different, and children mature at different rates. The place for instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity is in the home, guided by the parents if they deem it appropriate,” said Senate Sponsor Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville) in a statement about the bill on March 1.

To supporters of the policy like Anthony Verdugo with the Florida Christian Family Coalition, the bills represent an expansion of parents’ rights.

All laws signed will go into effect July 1.

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