Florida Senate approves ending trans treatment for minors

The Florida Senate on Tuesday approved a new law regarding sex change operations for minors. State lawmakers voted to ban surgeries and medical hormone treatments aimed at treating conditions such as gender dysphoria for those younger than 18 years old. The legislation was sponsored by Senator Clay Yarborough and endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

The law also seeks to prohibit public programs, local government, universities or health insurance plans for civil servants from financing these types of operations. Senator Clay Yarborough held a press conference after the bill passed in the state Senate. "We need to let kids be kids, and our laws need to set appropriate boundaries that respect the rights and responsibilities of parents, while protecting children from the serious health, safety, and welfare consequences of social agendas that are totally inconsistent with how the overwhelming majority of parents want to raise their children," the state senator said in his appearance.

Opposition from Democrats

The law provides that minors who are currently undergoing hormone treatment can continue for another year once the legislative process is completed and the law becomes effective in the state of Florida. During the vote, Democratic senators opposed the Republican initiative. Advocates for transgender care for minors claim that providing such medical treatment drastically reduces suicides and depression among minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The treatments could, however, have many negative consequences. Countries such as Sweden and Finland revoked their trans policies for minors after these harmful effects were exposed.

Ending the financing

Now that the Senate has approved the proposal, the bill will pass to the Florida House of Representatives, also with a Republican majority, which will in turn examine and vote on Yarborough's bill. This is the second trans law that legislators are working on. HB 1421 passed the House on March 29, which would prevent private insurance funds from financing trans operations on minors.

Florida joins the group of states prohibiting minors from obtaining gender reassignment treatment. North Dakota and Tennessee are two of the states that have recently begun to legislate against these programs. Most of them have Republican governments.