TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Transgender children could soon lose all access to gender dysphoria treatments in Florida. In a House subcommittee, Wednesday Republicans advanced HB1421 in a vote of 12 to 5.
The bill backs a ban currently in place by the state’s board of medicine, which went into effect last week.
The policy blocks doctors from treating transgender youth with puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery. All treatments the bill sponsors condemned.
“This is not care; this is an abomination,” State Rep. Randy Fine said. Meanwhile, State Rep. Ralph Massullo said that the treatments do more harm than good.
“These treatments do much more harm than good, and for us to continue those would be disgraceful,” Massullo said.
Several LGBTQ+ advocates spoke out against the bill during public comment saying the lack of care would “increase suicide rates.” Calling the legislation the “most extreme attack on transgender Americans that is filed in any state legislature today.”
An amendment approved today adopts the senate bill’s language which gives courts the ability to change custody agreements that include a trans-affirming parent.
“If you have one parent who wants to mutilate their child and another parent who doesn’t, I think the parent who doesn’t want to abuse their child should have the ability to save them,” State Rep. Randy Fine said.
Both versions of this bill have one committee stop before getting to their respective chamber floors.
