Ron DeSantis' new law allows trans kids to be taken from their parents

When Florida Gov Ron DeSantis isn't targeting LGBTQ people, he attempts to make himself look congenial. It doesn't work.

We already know that on Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a slate of anti-LGBTQ bills into law. You can see this link to read more about them. 

I want to focus on the following law because it's so damn cruel.

According to The New Republic:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a horrifying bill Wednesday that will let the state take transgender minors away from their families if they are receiving gender-affirming care. 

 The new law will allow the state to take custody of a child if they have been “subjected to or [are] threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care, which includes puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Florida courts could modify custody agreements from a different state if the minor is likely to receive gender-affirming care in that second state. The text refers to gender-affirming care as “sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures” and qualifies this care as a form of “physical harm.” 

 Medical facilities would have to give the state Department of Health a signed attestation that they neither provide gender-affirming care to any patients under the age of 18 nor refer people to providers that do. Their medical license renewal is contingent upon sending in this attestation. 

And it doesn't just target trans kids.

 But the bill also targets trans adults: Only physicians are allowed to offer gender-affirming care (not nurse practitioners). Anyone who violates the law could be charged with a misdemeanor. Minors who have already begun transitioning will be allowed to continue to do so, but they are no longer allowed to receive care via telehealth, including for prescriptions. 

Their doctors have to tell them about the “risks” of gender-affirming care, and patients will have to sign an informed consent form, which the ACLU has pointed out often contains misinformation. Doctors who violate any of these new rules could be charged with a felony.

This news law is simply evil in itself. But it becomes more insidious when one takes into account the allegation that the state may have manipulated data to justify creating it. Independent journalist Erin Reed breaks it all down in a very thorough article:

On August 11th, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration banned gender affirming care coverage from Medicaid. Meanwhile, the board of medicine proceeded to ban gender affirming care for transgender youth. To do this, they relied on a newly created “Standards of Care” for the treatment of gender dysphoria that was rife with errors and omissions. Now, new court filings show that the Florida Surgeon General’s Office and the Agency for Health Care Administration purposefully manipulated this research to justify banning gender affirming care, including a flow chart produced before the “research” was commissioned with the explicit end goal of “care effectively banned.” Worse, they utilized a consultant from a religious conversion therapy organization to do so.

Gender-affirming care for trans people, including trans kids, is safe and supported by over 20 major medical groups including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The government has no business interjecting itself into private family decisions by way of laws passed through lies and deliberate misappropriate of studies.

This attack on gender-affirming care is a fraudulent undertaking motivated by lies, prejudice, and - in the case of Ron DeSantis -  a craven desire for higher office. It's very similar to past attacks on gay rights, even down to the fake experts and the horror anecdotes about children being indoctrinated.