Last Friday, the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine held a hearing where they affirmed and strengthened rules protecting sexually confused minors from experimental and damaging puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones and surgeries.
The boards met last year to draft rules to protect minors from these procedures and approved a ban – with one exception: The Board of Osteopathic Medicine allowed an exemption for “clinical trials” with children.
After that decision in November 2022, different groups and individuals asked for a hearing on the rule. Transgender activists and their allies asked for the ban to be overturned, while groups working to safeguard children asked for the research exemption to be removed.
John Wilson, general counsel for the Florida Department of Public Health, spoke at the hearing, saying the exemption from The Board of Osteopathic Medicine was “illogical and confusing” and “undermines the purpose of the rule.”
One licensed mental health counselor who supported protecting children was January Littlejohn. She and her husband are suing Florida’s Leon County School Board for violating their parental rights by secretly affirming their daughter, who was only 13 years old at the time, in her gender confusion.
Littlejohn correctly pointed out that the majority of minors struggling with this issue come to embrace their biological maleness or femaleness – if not pushed toward social and medical transitioning. She said that real care for children should help them embrace their bodily reality, not treat them with damaging drugs, hormones and surgeries.
Littlejohn also highlighted the recent story of Jamie Reed, who worked as a case manager at St Louis’ Washington University Transgender Center and saw firsthand the profound damage done by these treatments and opposes them.
Simone Chriss, director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, opposed the ban, saying:
I am ashamed to be from Florida and ashamed that the rest of the country, and the world, is watching, while those in positions of power, who are entrusted to protect our rights, our health, our well-being, are weaponizing that power against the transgender community for political gain.
And doing so under the guise of protecting children is particularly insidious.
Given what we know, based on the overwhelming weight of evidence and science, access to treatment for gender dysphoria is safe, effective and medically necessary.
Chriss’ statement was strongly challenged by Dr. Hector Vila, a board member, who took exception with her assertion that these treatments are “acceptable and safe.” He said:
That’s not true. … The clinical data does not support, there’s not adequate evidence, to support the use of the therapies … that we said should not be used because of the irreversible harm. …
This board has reviewed hundreds of studies. We’ve talked to doctors. We received testimonies from both sides of this issue, and the overwhelming data does not support [medical interventions].
Several state representatives and therapists testified, along with many transgender-identified individuals. They advocated for “gender-affirming care,” a euphemism for social and medical “transitioning,” which attempt to make a person look like the opposite sex.
But the Florida Boards of Medicine made the right decision, to protect children.
At the end of the heated public debate, The Washington Free Beacon reported:
The board unanimously voted to remove the exception and confirm the standards as outlined by the Board of Medicine, to the dismay of a large crowd of LGBTQ activists present at the hearing.
As the Daily Citizen has explained, the research on treating children with these powerful drugs and irreversible surgeries is limited and of low quality, nor do the studies demonstrate that these interventions are helpful.
Related articles and resources:
Florida Parents Sue School for Helping Teen ‘Transition’ – Without Their Knowledge or Consent
Florida Protects Children, Bans Experimental ‘Trans’ Procedures on Minors
Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?
Photo from Shutterstock.
