Florida Senate passes DeSantis-backed bill banning transgender treatments for minors

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DeSantis says Democratic Party 'dead' in Florida

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke Saturday to the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, touting his electoral success. (Pennsylvania Leadership Conference)

The Florida Senate voted Tuesday to approve a ban on transgender treatments for children. 

The bill, SB 254, passed 27-12 in the chamber where Republicans hold a supermajority. Introduced by Republican state Sen. Clay Yarborough, the legislation would prohibit anyone under age 18 from undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries or taking prescription-based cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria. The bill would also make permanent a state rule banning Medicaid from reimbursing people of all ages who undergo the procedures. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo are backing the bill. Last year, the governor pushed for rules from the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine that prohibit transgender treatments for minors. SB 254 would codify those rules. 

"This legislation sends a strong message that Florida is a safe place to raise children. As the father of four young boys, I know that childhood is as special as it is short. Florida parents are worried about the radical, prurient agenda that has become pervasive across most forms of media, specifically targeting young children," Yarborough said in a statement announcing the bill last month.

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Demonstrators protest in support of rights for transgender youth. (Fox News )

"We need to let kids be kids, and our laws need to set appropriate boundaries that respect the rights and responsibilities of parents, while protecting children from the serious health, safety, and welfare consequences of social agendas that are totally inconsistent with how the overwhelming majority of parents want to raise their children," he added.

SB 254 now heads to the state House, where a similar bill, HB 1421, has been making its way through the legislative process. The House bill is slightly different — it would ban private, commercial insurance policies for reimbursing transgender treatments. The Senate bill does not. 

The House bill would also allow transgender minors who are currently receiving treatment for gender dysphoria to continue taking puberty blockers through the end of the year only. The Senate bill delegates to Florida's medical boards to establish rules governing minor patients who are currently receiving puberty blockers. 

Both bills would give state courts temporary emergency jurisdiction in child custody cases where a child in Florida "has been subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures." 

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is backing SB 254, a bill that would ban transgender treatments for minors in Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democrats were united against the bill. State Sen. Shevrin Jones, the state's first Black openly gay lawmaker, raised concerns that bans on transgender treatments have caused some gender dysphoric youths to consider taking their own lives. 

Acknowledging that he does not believe the bill's sponsors carry "evil intent," Jones argued the bill will do harm.

"They’re committing suicide because of how they’re treated," Jones said. "Do we want to be that type of body where we’re continuing on pushing, pushing, pushing these young people who may look different and there may not be like your child?"

State Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat from Boynton Beach, said the bill contradicts DeSantis' favorite slogan championing Florida as a "free state," according to local news outlet Florida Politics. 

"I would say free states don’t ban health care," Berman said, noting major medical groups including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, supports transgender medical treatments for gender dysphoric youths. "This bill is wrong on the way it attacks transgender adults, wrong on the way it attacks parents’ rights to raise their children, and wrong on how it puts medical professionals at risk."

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Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones warned that SB 254 could increase the risk that transgender youths contemplate suicide. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The Florida bill is the latest legislation offered by conservatives as part of a national movement that opposes transgender medical treatments as unproven and potentially dangerous for children. Those supporting such legislation say gender-confused kids are being encouraged to make life-altering and permanent decisions before they are able to understand the consequences of doing so. 

Research suggests that regret among transgender individuals who have medically transformed their bodies is rare, but some who have detransitioned, like activist Chloe Cole, have gained prominence in the movement opposing so-called "gender-affirming care" for minors. 

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Advocates for transgender people say that such care is life-saving because untreated trans youth face higher rates of depression and suicide. Opponents counter that the United States is out-of-step with European countries including Sweden, Finland, and the U.K., which have found that the benefits of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are low compared to the risks and have enacted strict eligibility requirements for minors to receive these treatments. 

The number of transgender teens under 18 doubled between 2017 and 2020, from .7% to 1.4%, according to UCLA research. The report released last June, based on government health surveys, also found that just under 43% of the 1.6 million people who identify as transgender in the U.S. are between 13 and 25.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.