ABOVE: Equality Florida and supporters, photo via Equality Florida’s Facebook page.
TALLAHASSEE | A controversial bill that would ban trans youth from participating in sports has stalled in the Republican held State Senate Tuesday after its counterpart in the Florida House passed last week.
Politico reported that a top Senate panel on Tuesday put off considering the ban, a move that signals the upper chamber is reluctant to move forward with the bill. The proposal’s sponsor, Senate budget chief Kelli Stargel, said her attention will be on finishing the state budget with less than two weeks left in session.
“Right now, my primary focus as Appropriations Chair is our constitutional responsibility to pass a balanced budget,” Stargel, a Lakeland Republican, said in statement to POLITICO. “And in a time-limited environment, I don’t know that we will have sufficient time to revisit SB 2012 this session.”
Florida Senate bill SB2012 would affect students in grades K-12 and the state’s colleges and universities by limiting them to their biological sex and provided, according to the bill’s language, any disputes regarding a student’s sex arising would be resolved with a “health examination and consent form” verifying the student’s biological sex.
“The health care provider may verify the student’s biological sex as part of a routine sports physical examination by relying only on one or more of the following: 1. The student’s reproductive anatomy; 2. The student’s genetic makeup; or 3. The student’s normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”
“Biological sex” is a term that refers to the sex assigned at birth and which has been a term that is categorized as transphobic and non-accepting/affirming by LGBTQ advocacy groups.
In a statement, Equality Florida Director of Transgender Equality Gina Duncan said that “With the temporary postponement of SB2012 and the subsequent statements from Senator Stargil, it appears that the overwhelming opposition to the Trans Youth Sports Ban makes it unlikely to move forward.”
“We will continue monitoring to ensure that no other procedural moves can resurrect it,” she continued. “While the reversal of momentum on this bill is welcome news, the harm inflicted by lawmakers this Session is unconscionable. Facing unprecedented and urgent challenges in the wake of a deadly pandemic and the largest civil rights protests in American history, legislators placed a target on the backs of the most vulnerable among us — transgender children — to score political points. Make no mistake, this is a nationally-coordinated effort to feed red meat to a socially-conservative base at the expense of our kids.
“We are grateful to the coalition of sports icons, major corporations, organizations, business leaders, classmates, parents, and trans kids who stood tall in the face of transphobia to oppose this legislation. This bigoted, damaging bill should never have seen the light of day and lawmakers should reflect on the harm they have caused vulnerable youth to further their political careers. To trans kids across Florida: you are loved. And we will continue to defend your right to thrive,” she added.
The organization also shared the news via social media:
Reaction from Democratic State Senator Janet Cruz (D-Tampa) was blunt. “Ding dong the witch is dead,” she tweeted. “Rip Transgender bill.”
Ding dong the witch is dead. Rip Transgender bill! pic.twitter.com/RYYMzbBuqe
— Janet Cruz (@SenJanetCruz) April 20, 2021
State Sen. Shevrin Jones (D-Miami Gardens) said he hoped the Senate bill, FL SB2012 (21R), would die in its committee Tuesday — the last scheduled meeting of 2021.
“The Florida Legislature has done enough bad policies for one session, and the last thing we need is more divisive rhetoric that will do nothing but keep all of us in our little corners, while the people of Florida look at the Legislature in disgust,” Jones, an openly gay lawmaker and outspoken LGBTQ advocate, said in a statement to POLITICO.
In a phone interview with the Blade last week, a spokesperson for Equality Florida, Brandon J. Wolf pointed out that cruelest aspect of the bill is that terrorizes trans youth athletes. He noted that a separate Senate bill that would also impede trans youth participation in athletics, SB 2012 would require that even “a 12-year-old trans female youth would be forced to adhere to Olympic standards for testosterone levels.”
Wolf said that both bills were simply “cruel and grotesque” and warned that there’s a definite racist element as Black Trans girls will end up bearing the brunt of these trans-adverse laws if passed.
Repeated calls by the Blade requesting comment by Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis have gone unanswered.
Additional details provided by Watermark staff.
