Add Florida to the list of states banning hormone treatment for kids so they can swap genders.
In addition to hospitals, universities and local governments also won’t have access to hormone blockers. And anyone with Medicaid won’t be able to get it either.
It becomes the 14th state to do so, signaling serious momentum.
There were two bills, the more extreme failed, which would have also banned hormone blocking treatment for private health insurance, as well as making it illegal to change your gender on a birth certificate.
A GOP state rep said, “We cannot let perfect be the enemy of good. There are certainly things we wanted in our bill and there’s always next year.”
This follows a bill that bans school employees from asking students what their preferred gender pronouns are.
It marks a smart shift, finally for DeSantis, on a much more winning issue.
DeSantis turned off a lot of people with his restrictive 6 week abortion ban. He lost a major billionaire donor because of it. But protecting kids from likely irreversible transgender treatment seems to be a winning issue. And the fact that the more moderate version of the bill won out doesn’t make him seem so extreme after all.
Florida has had one of the most ambitious legislative sessions in history as DeSantis gears up for his presidential run. Maybe he finally had a good day in a sea of awful on.
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