Florida Rep Says Trans People "Are Dead" After Transition, Passes Bill In Committee

Florida Representative David Borrero compared transition to suicide while defending HB1421, a bill that targets trans kids, trans adults, and bans all insurance coverage.

Representative Borrero speaking about HB1421 in Florida

Florida’s Healthcare Regulation subcommittee met to hear HB1421, a bill which has been called one of the worst anti-trans bills in the country by Democratic committee members. This bill would ban gender affirming care for trans youth, allow parents who oppose transition to take custody of their children from affirming parents in violation of judges orders, ban birth certificate changes, and even ban adult private insurance coverage. In the hearing, multiple Republican representatives lied about data and outright fabricated scenarios to justify banning trans care. One official, Representative David Borrero (R), used his speaking time to handwave high trans suicide rates, stating that transition itself “kills” because a transgender person no longer goes by their old name and pronouns. The bill then passed out of the committee on a party line vote 12-5.

HB1421 is one of the most extreme anti-trans bills in the United States right now. Some of its provisions have not been seen before in any other bills targeting the community this year. The medical ban portions for trans youth would be harmful enough alone, but it even spells out how doctors should medically detransition their patients, stating that patients “may continue to receive such therapies through December 31, 2023, solely for the purpose of gradual discontinuation of such therapies." It bans birth certificate changes and would even allow parents to ignore the orders of a judge and seek a new order if one parent allowed gender affirming care.

Perhaps one of the harshest portions of the bill was the new way in which it targets transgender adults and its expansion into adult care. The bill outright bans even private insurances from covering gender affirming care for any transgender person:

Section banning private coverage of care for trans adults.

This provision would mean that all gender affirming care would need to be paid out of pocket. Even if a company wanted to support their transgender employees medical care, they would be forbidden by the state of Florida from doing so. This would effectively price out many transgender people from obtaining many forms of gender affirming care. This also makes it clear that attacks on transgender people are not about “protecting children,” but rather about “eradicating transgenderism” as Michael Knowles put it in his recent infamous CPAC speech. I expect these kinds of bills targeting adult care to become increasingly common over the next two years.

In order to support these bills, proponents used outright fabricated scenarios and lied about data. Representative Melanie Bell (R) stated that “children as young as 6 months are being injected with testosterone,” something that is made up out of whole cloth. Another representative claimed that 80% of transgender youth detransition, a debunked argument based on decades-old diagnostic criteria and data - modern studies show that number is only 2.5%, with the majority doing so due to lack of acceptance. The lead sponsor of the bill compared gender affirming care to COVID vaccines at one point, assumedly indicating that he was against both things.

Representative Borrero, however, likely had one of the most insulting remarks of the day. He claimed that he supported the bill because transition “kills people.” He stated, “When someone transitions to different gender, that child, that brother, that daughter, that sister that you once knew is no more. That person no longer exists.”

See the video:

Representative Borrero then closed off his comments with religious justifications for the bill. He said that the bill saves trans people and preserves them for “who they are in the eyes of God.” A recent Vice article showed that the lobbyists responsible for these laws seemingly view them as part of an anti-trans religious crusade. The lobbyists at time sign off their emails with things like, “Under His Wings,” which some have compared to the Handmaids Tale phrase “Under His Eye.”

Transgender people are not “killed” by their transition. Transition care saves lives - some studies show the reduction of suicide risk as high as 73%. More than that though, transgender people don’t “die” after transitioning. We are still living, breathing people, with all of our loves and joys and memories from attempting to live our lives as a gender we never were meant to be. Many trans people will testify that this statement is something we have heard from parents or friends who cannot accept our new identities and consider us “dead” to them.

Dozens of people testified passionately in front of this committee to let them know how this bill and language used by people like Rep. Borrero hurts the community. One remarkable speech was from Maxx Fenning, president of PRISM, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit in South Florida. He demanded the committee’s attention, telling them to look at the trans people in the room in the eyes. When told his time was up, he replied, “The audacity. You give us one minute to beg for mercy.”

The bill proceeded to pass the committee on party lines. Democrats on the committee indicated that they believed it would fully pass the Florida House of Representatives. If this bill ever does make it into law in Florida, it would be one of the most restrictive anti-trans bills in the United States. It also represents a significant moment in that a bill that targets the care of transgender adults in such a direct way seems to be gaining traction there. As these bills grow more radical every day, it should be clear that Republicans were only using children as a means to target transgender people no matter their age.