Comment Florida’s medical boards approved a rule Friday that would prohibit minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery as treatments for gender dysphoria. The ban, which will take effect after a 21-day public comment period, includes non-surgical exemptions for youth already in care. Doctors who violate the new rules could face penalties, including losing their medical license. Other states have tried to limit this care, but Florida is the first to do so through its medical boards. The Arkansas and Alabama legislatures passed similar measures, but families have filed lawsuits against both and judges have barred either from taking effect pending litigation. Arizona lawmakers also passed a ban earlier this year, but that law has yet to go into effect and activists have vowed to sue. Many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Endocrine Society, have endorsed puberty blockers and hormones as appropriate treatments for youth with gender dysphoria. Studies have shown that puberty blockers and hormone therapy can reduce emotional distress for transgender youth and reduce the risk of suicide. Preventing young people from accessing that care could lead to “tragic health consequences,” the head of the American Medical Association said last year. Despite these guidelines, Florida’s conservative leaders have repeatedly tried to block young people from transitioning. Republicans tried to pass a ban earlier this year, but the bill died in committee. In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo released guidelines that suggested young people should not be able to socially transition by using a different name, pronouns or clothing style, or receive medical care that gender affirming, like puberty. inhibitors or inter-hormone therapy. In June, citing “extremely weak” evidence supporting gender-affirming care, Ladapo asked the medical board to “establish a standard of care for these complex and irreversible procedures.” DeSantis appointed all 14 board members, and a Tampa Bay Times analysis this week found that at least eight have donated to the Republican governor’s campaigns or political committee. The board met Friday afternoon — so close to the midterm elections that a state representative, Democrat Anna Escamani, accused the board of using the vote to drum up support for DeSantis’ re-election. Although the common board ultimately received public comments from 16 people — eight in favor and eight against the rule — members voted on the rule before hearing from the public. In a separate vote that the medical board’s attorney said he had never seen, the Board of Osteopathic Medicine will allow new patients enrolled in clinical trials to receive care, while the Florida Board of Medicine will not. This means there will be two standards in the state, one for its 57,354 physicians and another for its 7,842 osteopathic physicians. (Like doctors, osteopathic doctors prescribe drugs and perform surgeries, but they go through a different four-year training process and focus on preventive care, rather than treating symptoms.) David A. Diamond, a radiation oncologist and president of the medical board, was one of three dissenters who voted to keep the exemption for physicians as well. “The main point of agreement among all the experts — and I have to emphasize this — is that there is a pressing need for additional high-quality clinical research,” Diamond said. “I say let’s study it. … Let us be the light to the world as to what is the best care for these people. Otherwise we’ll never know.” The board’s decision followed a long and emotional committee meeting in October. Committee members met for five hours in a conference room at an Orlando airport hotel, and activists who supported the ban flew in from across the country to testify. Many of them said they had experienced trauma and once thought transitioning would ease their mental health struggles. They said they had taken cross-sex hormones and had surgeries, but later regretted those interventions. (A group of Princeton researchers recently found that only 2.5 percent of transgender youth reverted to their birth gender within five years.) Chloe Cole, who described herself as “an 18-year-old transitioning woman” from California’s Central Valley, said she began transitioning at 12 and had a double mastectomy at 15. He said he now “deeply regrets” the procedure. “I want to be a mother someday, but I can never physically feed my future children,” Cole testified. “My breasts were beautiful. And now they have been cremated for nothing.” Over the past six months, Cole has become one of the detransition movement’s most prominent speakers. He has testified before legislators in Louisiana, Ohio, DC and California. Last month, she spoke in Nashville at right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh’s “Rally to End Child Mutilation.” At least one member of the Florida panel said he found Cole’s testimony compelling and sufficient reason to bar minors from receiving care. Fifty trans rights activists attended the committee meeting and several signed up to speak, but only one, Jude Speegle, was given time during the public comment period. Speegle read the names of 17 transgender teenagers who “chose suicide rather than live in a world that refused to recognize or accept them.” Shortly after Speegle finished, the committee’s chairman, Fort Lauderdale cardiologist Zachariah P. Zachariah, adjourned the meeting. When the crowd complained that Zacharias forbade them to speak after allowing nine transition activists to testify, Zacharias told the crowd to email him. The crowd protested and started chanting, “Their blood is on your hands.” Zachariah, a longtime board member who wrote a $25,000 check to friends of Ron DeSantis in May, remained uninvolved. “It doesn’t matter,” he said.
