Florida Moves To Detransition Trans Teens
Florida is going to attempt to detransition trans teens, and the way they are doing it is incredibly scary.
On August 5th, the Florida Board of Medicine came together to forcibly detransition transgender teenagers. Hundreds of transgender rights protestors descended on the meeting to voice their opposition to the measure. Thousands of letters in opposition were written, but ultimately, the board voted nearly unanimously to accept the state’s petition.
Leading up to the meeting, leading scientists at Yale came out against Florida’s panel as being composed of pseudoscientific “experts” with questionable credentials. One scientist, Dr. Ken Pang, came out to say that his research was outright distorted. Several researchers claimed that Florida had not even contacted them to ensure that they were correctly interpreting and summarizing the research.
None of this is surprising though. The board is entirely handpicked by Ron DeSantis, and control of it has been given to the anti-trans organization Genspect. Zinnia Jones has an amazing thread that details all of this here:
Activists showed up to the meeting, despite knowing that the goose was cooked and the outcome was already agreed to. Some activists staged a die in outside. Inside, the room was packed with people protesting for transgender rights and there to hold them accountable.
One important thing to note is that despite the outcome already being predetermined, some of the submitted comments and answers to the questions will likely find their way into court. One reason why it is so important for people supporting trans rights to show up to these meetings is because it can influence the proceedings in a way that makes them easier to fight down the line.
Some of the public comments and questions lead to on the record statements that were damning of the Florida Board of Medicine’s stance. One public comment for instance lead to the statement that the board has never received a complaint over gender affirming care from a patient in its long history. Another lead to one of the main doctor witnesses, Dr. Haller, has never approved consent for any kind of gender affirming surgeries.
Statements like these will lead to an easier fight in court. So far, every single gender affirming care ban has been defeated or stayed in court. In Arkansas, the ban is currently on hold while the 8th circuit court of appeals hears the case. In Alabama, the ban is on hold while a federal judge does the same. In Texas, multiple cases are proceeding and their anti-trans enforcement efforts have been partially blocked by the state.
Let’s hope that this trend of victories against these terrible initiatives continues.