(LAB) The Transgender Youth Medical Care Ban Bill, HB 211 filed Sept. 29 by State Representative Anthony Sabatini (R-Clermont) would criminalize doctors for providing life-saving care for transgender youth.
The language of the bill reads, “An act relating to youth gender and sexual identity; creating s. 456.0335, F.S.; providing a short title; defining the term ‘sex;’ providing criminal penalties for health care practitioners who perform or cause to be performed specified practices on a minor under certain conditions; providing applicability…”
In response, Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith said, “Make no mistake, this legislation has nothing to do with the health and safety of children. In fact, it gets in the way of doctors providing care and stops parents from doing what is best for their kids. The bill filed today by Representative Anthony Sabatini is cut and paste language from right-wing political strategy groups like the Heritage Foundation that seek to put a target on the backs of transgender youth as an election strategy to mobilize far-right voters.
Rep. Sabatini has cultivated a reputation for sponsoring extremist bills, and GOP leaders in Tallahassee are increasingly embracing his extremism. They’re making passage of language first introduced by him a legislative priority, including last session’s Transgender Youth Sports Ban.
Leadership has fired their first shot across the bow of LGBT equality for the 2022 legislative session and we will fight to protect the health and safety of every child they target.”
Florida’s Republicans have continuously legislated against the state’s trans community over the past year’s legislative sessions.
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1028, a bill that bars trans youth athletes from participating in sports on the first day of LGBT Pride Month 2021. One provision of the law stipulates that a transgender student athlete would have to affirm her biological sex by supplying proof such as a birth certificate.
The bill was an education bill amended to include a previous stand-alone bill specifically targeting transgender girls and young women, banning them from playing on female sports teams. DeSantis signed the bill, which includes the so-called Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, during a news conference at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville.
A spokesperson for Equality Florida, Brandon J. Wolf wrote in an email to the Blade commenting on earlier anti-Trans efforts:
“Shame on every lawmaker who embraced discrimination at the expense of the state’s most vulnerable youth … Only through fast-tracked backroom deals could GOP lawmakers maneuver this cruel assault on transgender kids to the governor’s desk.
This is not the end. To our transgender youth in Florida: we will never stop fighting for a Florida where you are loved and have every opportunity to thrive.”
