On Thursday, Florida joined seven other states in restricting transition-related health care for minors, and parents of transgender youth in the state immediately announced they plan to challenge the move in court.
After months of tense hearings and debates, the Florida Board of Medicine promulgated a rule prohibiting minors from starting puberty blockers or hormone therapy. Minors who were already receiving the treatment before the effective date of the rule may continue to do so, although the rule prohibits all minors from receiving gender-affirming surgeries.
The Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine will promulgate an identical rule the 28th of March.
In joint public hearings for the two rules, members of the Board of Medicine said there is not enough research to justify the potential side effects of the treatments.
During a final public hearing on February 10, several people shared testimony saying the rule contradicted most medical evidence, as well as guidance from nearly every relevant medical association in the US, including the American Medical Associationhe American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. But Dr. Hector Vilaa pediatric anesthesiologist and member of the Board of Medicine, disagreed, saying the board has «reviewed hundreds of studies.»
“We have spoken with doctors, we have received testimony from both sides of this issue, and the overwhelming data does not support” the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy, Vila said.
“This board is not against the investigation; he is not against caring for transgender children,” she said. «What the board has tried to do is protect our children from therapies that have been shown to create irreversible damage.»
Under the newly enacted rule, anyone can file a complaint against a health care professional, and if the professional is found to have violated the rule, they could face a reprimand, fine, or have their professional license suspended or revoked. among other consequences.
The rule is now up for a legal challenge from a group of parents represented by four national advocacy groups: Southern Legal Counsel, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign.
One of the plaintiffs, referred to as Jane Doe in a press release, said the ban will prevent her 11-year-old trans daughter from accessing the treatment she will need when she hits puberty.
“Our daughter is a happy and confident child, but to deny her access to medical care recommended by her doctors would completely alter her life,” Doe said, according to the statement. «I am devastated by what this will mean for her physical and mental health.»
Another plaintiff, a Florida mother who joined the lawsuit on behalf of her 14-year-old son, said the rule strips «parents like me of our right to ensure our children receive appropriate evidence-based medical care.»
“My son was finally getting to a place where he felt hopeful, where testosterone was on the horizon and he could see a future for himself in his own body, but that has been ripped away by this discriminatory rule,” she said. in a statement. “I am very concerned about the impact the lack of access to medical treatment will have on my son. Every parent’s worst nightmare is having to worry about the unthinkable.»
The Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine did not immediately return a request for comment on the legal challenge.
The rules are part of a broader effort throughout the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis to restrict gender-affirming attention. In August, following a June request from the state Department of Health, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration banned Medicaid from covering puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery as gender dysphoria treatments for patients of any age. Civil rights groups challenged the measure, but a federal judge let rest in october.
In the state Legislature, a Senate committee approved an invoice on Monday that would prohibit minors from starting puberty blockers or hormone therapy or receiving surgery for the treatment of gender dysphoria and would prohibit state funds from covering transition-related care for patients of any age. The bill will be considered by another Senate committee and then would still have to go through a full Senate and House vote before being sent to the governor.
The bill would also give jurisdiction to courts in child custody cases «to protect the child from being subject to prescriptions or sex reassignment proceedings.»
It would allow minors who are already receiving treatments to continue them, but would require that such treatments, even for adults, be administered by a doctor rather than a nurse practitioner or other licensed health care provider.
Eight states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Mississippi, and now Florida) restrict transition-related health care for minors.
So far this year, Florida lawmakers have filed 10 bills targeting LGBTQ people, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nationwide, state legislators have introduced more than 400 such bills, according to the ACLU and a separate group of researchers they are following the flow of legislation.
Jim Lopresti, the founder of SunServe, a mental health services agency in Fort Lauderdale that treats LGBTQ youth, said his practice has already seen legislation proposed and passed, along with the debate over the Board of Medicine rule They affect families.
“The place where we are discovering problems and concerns the most is stress on families and youth, who are now finding that because of the whole complex of anti-LGBTQ initiatives in Florida, they are finding very few safe places to go,” he said. saying.
Supporters of restrictions on gender-affirming care often argue that minors might regret transitioning later, but Lopresti said that in the roughly two decades she has worked with trans youth, she can only think of one person who experienced regret as an adult, and that was because that person did not have adequate support throughout the process.
«When we hear about regrets, it usually comes from people in the trans community who regret not doing it sooner, that’s a much more frequent experience,» he said.