Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 254, granting the state “temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child” seeking or undergoing gender reassignment, in May. Activists fought against it, with a few taking the issue to court. The Act was temporarily blocked on May 6 after the judge concurred with the petitioners and declared, “Gender identity is real.”
According to the Associated Press, lawmakers decided to make the prohibition on so-called gender-affirming care for minors effective on July 1. It classed a number of related treatments as felonies and misdemeanors, putting doctors’ licenses at risk if they continued performing them illegally. For any youngster “subjected to or threatened with sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures,” the state now has the right to acquire legal custody.
The federal lawsuit challenging the law was brought by three separate families. The ruling validates their argument that some people are born with bodies that do not correspond to their biological genders. They think that the hazards of continuing without medical assistance are much worse than the risks of treatment, which include anxiety, depression, and even suicide ideation. Equality Florida, a transgender rights advocacy group, issued a public statement praising the decision, calling it “an important win […] and an unwavering endorsement of the right of transgender people to be treated with dignity and respect.”
The office of Florida’s governor also issued a statement in response, echoing the governor’s displeasure with the ruling and reiterating promises to continue the fight. The governor has promised to continue working to “protect against mutilating our kids” using techniques he says “push ideology over evidence.”
PBS quotes Judge Robert Hinkle, who ordered the preliminary injunction, as saying that the defendants would be spared “irreparable harm” by his decision. He asserted that nobody was hurt by the “treatment” and that his choice would affect anyone but “the patients themselves.”
