ABOVE: Equality Florida supporters attend Tampa Pride 2022. Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent.
The state’s largest LGBTQ-focused civil rights organization is denouncing the Florida Department of Health’s new stance on treating gender dysphoria for children and adolescents, released April 20 in opposition to federal guidance.
“Once again, the DeSantis Administration seeks to replace science and the safety of young people with political propaganda,” Equality Florida shared. “The Florida Department of Health has released non-binding guidance opposing science-backed health care for transgender children.”
Florida released its position “to clarify evidence recently cited on a fact sheet released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” its DOH announced. Officials noted they are prioritizing “the overall health and wellbeing of Florida’s children and adolescents.”
HHS released its guidance last month through the Office of Population Affairs. It called gender-affirming care “a supportive form of healthcare [that] consists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.”
Under the department’s guidance, it noted that social affirmation such as adopting gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, gender pronouns and restrooms and other facilities should be used at any age or stage. They also advised that during puberty, care which uses certain types of hormones to pause pubertal development can be used. Both types of care are reversible.
HHS further noted that hormone therapy, in which testosterone hormones for those who were assigned female at birth and estrogen hormones for those who were assigned male at birth are administered, can be used beginning in early adolescence. This is partially reversible.
Gender-affirming surgery is “typically used in adulthood or case-by-case in adolescence,” the department added of the non-reversible process.
“The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,” Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said in a statement. “It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children. Children experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported by family and seek counseling, not pushed into an irreversible decision before they reach 18.”
Under Florida’s guidance, social affirmation should not be used as treatment for transgender youth or adolescents, those under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy. It also notes that gender reassignment surgery “should not be a treatment option” for trans children or adolescents.
“This guidance demonizes life-saving, medically-necessary care, and asserts that the government, not parents, knows best when it comes to health care for our children,” Equality Florida responded. “And, once again, DeSantis wants the government to intrude into doctors’ offices to pander to extremists in service to his political ambitions.
“Parents should be deciding, in partnership with their child’s doctor, based on science, not politics, what is best for their children,” the organization continued. “Governor DeSantis’ runaway agenda of banning books, muzzling teachers, censoring history and pushing government control is putting a handful of extremists in charge of every aspect of the lives of Floridians and is making the state less safe for LGBTQ families, especially transgender children.”
According to HHS, “a safe and affirming healthcare environment is critical in fostering better outcomes for transgender, nonbinary, and other gender expansive children and adolescents.” The Biden administration has previously asserted it will use federal law to protect the rights of every LGBTQ American, including transgender youth.
