ORLANDO, Fla. – A ban Bars against puberty-blocking hormones and gender-affirming surgeries for minors in Florida were further tightened after a panel overseeing physicians on Friday removed a clinical trials exception at the request of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
Some members of the public attending the Tallahassee meeting shouted expletives, and law enforcement officers lined up outside the room after the vote by the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine.
The decision came after member after member of the public testified at the packed meeting of the Osteopathic Medical Committee and Florida Board of Medicine gender-affirming treatment was “magical” and like “opening a prison door” for her or her children. An adult transgender man gave himself a hormone injection while testifying before the medical boards. Others claimed the treatment stopped them from “fighting with themselves” and contemplating suicide.
“I’m a teenager. If it weren’t for this drug at this crucial age, I would have been waiting for my life to begin,” said LJ Valenzuela, a trans man in high school who said he is on hormone replacement therapy.
Judy Schmidt told board members she is concerned that her trans son, who was 6 when he told her he was a boy, will have undergone four to five years of social change before he reaches puberty. and will not be able to get the sex. Confirmation of the care he needs.
“As doctors, you should not cause any damage,” said Schmidt to the committees, which were predominantly made up of doctors. “If you make that blanket rule, you do harm.”
The Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine passed rules last fall that banned gender-affirming surgery and puberty-blocking hormones for minors, although minors who received puberty blockers before the rules went into effect could continue to take them. The Osteopathic Medicine Board made an exception for clinical research studies examining the long-term effects of the treatments.
During Friday’s meeting, the Florida Department of Health urged panels to streamline rules to eliminate the Osteopathic Medical Board’s research exemption. The DeSantis government health department last year got the ball rolling to curb gender-affirming treatment of minors in Florida by petitioning the governing bodies to pass the ban. In 2021, DeSantis, widely considered the candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, signed a bill into law Exclusion of transgender girls and women Not to play on public school teams designated for student athletes assigned to be female at birth.
John Wilson, General Counsel for the Department of Health, told panels the exemption would create confusion as one panel would allow it but the other would not.
“The department is concerned that the exception undermines the purpose of this rule,” Wilson said.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, called the ban on gender-affirming grooming “politically motivated.”
“We shouldn’t be making politics based on who can make a donation letter out of this,” Eskamani said.
Hector Vila, a member of the Florida Board of Medicine, disputed this interpretation of the boards’ actions.
“This isn’t about transphobia or homophobia,” said Vila, a doctor from Tampa. “This isn’t about politics.”
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