Florida finalises ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth
In a massive blow to trans rights, Florida has effectively banned medical care for trans youth. Over the last couple of months, the state’s lawmakers and its Republican governor Ron DeSantis have targeted the trans community and gender-affirming treatments with harmful legislation and rhetoric.
In June, the conservative governor’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo asked the state’s board to ban medical care for trans youth. “I recommend against certain pharmaceutical, non-pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria,” Ladapo wrote in the misguided memo.
His letter also cited a debunked transphobic guidance report from April – which condemned the social and medical transition of trans youth.
On 28 October, a joint committee from Florida’s Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine held a public forum regarding the proposed rule – which would ban puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical treatments for trans individuals under the age of 18.
