Story at a glance
- A Florida lawmaker on Monday promised to introduce legislation next session to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors should he be reelected in November.
- Randy Fine, a Republican and member of the state House of Representatives, said Monday that women’s sports had become a “joke” and schools a “cesspool” because of transgender women and girls.
- Fine’s statement comes just a week after Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill was signed into law.
A Florida Republican on Monday pledged to introduce legislation next session that would make providing gender-affirming services to minors illegal.
Randy Fine, a member of the state House of Representatives, on Monday said he would “shepard legislation” next session to make providing gender-affirming care to minors, including medications and surgeries, felony child abuse, punishable by prison time or the revocation of a medical license.
“If an adult wants to self-mutilate in pursuit of the fiction they can defy G-d and science, more power to them — as they don’t expect me to pay for it,” Fine tweeted Monday. “But no child should be put in the position of making life-altering decisions before they are of the age of majority.”
Florida is just shy of a year out from its 2023 session and Fine, who has served in the state House of Representatives since 2016, is up for reelection in November.
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Fine has been a vocal critic of transgender people and last year was one of more than 70 Republicans in the House to vote in favor of a bill prohibiting transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, though that legislation later died in the state Senate.
“I can say I’m a porcupine, but that doesn’t make it so,” Fine tweeted on Monday. “It is time to dispense with this fantasy making women’s sports a joke and our schools into a cesspool.”
“I’ve taken on Common Core, university corruption, and school board lawbreaking,” Fine added. “And won every time. This is next.”
Fine’s comments come exactly a week after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law House Bill 1557 — known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which bars primary school teachers from engaging in classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Florida public school teachers of all grade levels will be prohibited from addressing those topics in a manner that is not “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students.
DeSantis last week during a signing ceremony claimed the “gender bread man” was invading Florida classrooms and young students were being taught to doubt their gender identity.
Responding to Fine’s tweets on Monday, state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, said Florida Republicans are “once again showing us that the entire premise of HB1557 was & is to attack the health & well-being of LGBTQ+ youth, who they don’t think should even be able to access medical care w/parental consent.”
“This policy proposal is dangerous & will harm already marginaliz[ed kids],” Eskamani wrote on Twitter, attaching a screenshot of Fine’s initial message pledging to punish providers of gender-affirming care.
More than a dozen states are currently debating whether transgender and nonbinary minors should have access to gender-affirming care, which has been identified as best practice by most major medical associations.
Importantly, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health does not recommend interventions like surgery be carried out before a person seeking gender-affirming care reaches the “legal age of majority,” which in most countries is 18 years old.
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