DeSantis signs transgender bathroom bill, bans gender-affirming care, expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday signed four bills that will substantially alter the everyday lives of LGBTQ people in the state in what advocacy groups have condemned as a “slate of hate” against the community.

DeSantis gave final approval to legislation banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths, expanding a controversial state education law that limits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and placing additional restrictions on drag performances.

“We are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy,” DeSantis said Wednesday during a signing ceremony in Tampa, speaking from a podium mounted with a sign that read “Let Kids Be Kids.”

Florida’s Senate Bill 254, the gender-affirming health care ban, will prevent transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and surgeries. Transgender adults under the new law, which is effective immediately, will be required to clear several additional regulatory hurdles to receive gender-affirming health care in Florida.

The measure will also give Florida courts temporary jurisdiction over a child that “has been subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures” and makes it easier for recipients of gender-affirming health care to sue their providers.

Speaking before an audience of supporters and conservative lawmakers, DeSantis said gender-affirming medical care is rooted in neither science nor evidence and is supported by only a small group of “ideologically charged” people within the medical community.

Most major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, however, say otherwise. 

“The AMA opposes the dangerous intrusion of government into the practice of medicine and the criminalization of health care decision-making,” Dr. Michael Suk, an AMA board member, said in a 2021 statement. “Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.”

Gender-affirming health care — for both transgender youths and adults — is heavily restricted in Florida, and the state under DeSantis has already adopted policies that prohibit minors from accessing care and prevent residents of all ages from using Medicaid to help pay for gender-affirming medical procedures.

Including Florida, 18 states have enacted laws or policies that ban health care providers from administering gender-affirming health care to minors.

DeSantis on Wednesday also signed House Bill 1069 into law, expanding a state law known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law for its disproportionate impact on LGBTQ students and families. Under the new measure, classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity will be prohibited from pre-K through the eighth grade.

The new law, which will take effect July 1, places additional restrictions on lessons about “human sexuality” through high school and requires that “all school-aged students” are taught to abstain from sexual activity outside of marriage.

Florida teachers under the law are encouraged to promote “the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage” in reproductive health courses.

The new law also declares “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.” Public schools kindergarten through eighth grade are prohibited from adopting policies that require staff and students to correctly gender transgender people.

“We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida; it’s not happening here,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

In a statement, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., who backed the original “Don’t Say Gay” bill as a state senator last year, said the new law is critical to keeping Florida schools “focused on education, not indoctrination.”

“Today’s actions make it clear — educators in Florida are expected to teach our standards and not interject their own opinions or worldview into the classroom,” Diaz said. “The department will remain focused on teaching students core subjects, rather than woke gender ideology or inappropriate topics.”

In April, the Florida Education Department approved an additional proposal to extend the original law’s restrictions on talk of sexual orientation and gender identity to high school classrooms, though lessons on either topic are permitted when they are “expressly required” by state academic standards or part of a reproductive health course.

A third bill signed Wednesday by DeSantis, House Bill 1438, prohibits establishments from admitting minors to an “adult live performance,” which includes drag shows. It is effective immediately.

Florida is the second state, after Tennessee, to enact a law explicitly targeting drag performances. A federal judge last month blocked the Tennessee law from taking effect, saying it was likely “vague and overly broad” in its restriction of speech.

DeSantis also signed House Bill 1521, which, beginning July 1, will bar transgender people from using public restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

LGBTQ advocacy groups on Wednesday slammed DeSantis’s approval of the bills, which they said were part of the Florida governor’s strategy to secure the upcoming GOP presidential nomination.

DeSantis has not officially jumped into the race for the White House but is widely expected to do so. At a news conference this month, he said he would make a decision on whether to launch a 2024 presidential bid “relatively soon.”

“DeSantis has just signed into law the largest slate of anti-LGBTQ bills in one legislative session in the state’s history,” Joe Saunders, senior political director of the group Equality Florida, said Wednesday.

“DeSantis doesn’t see freedom as a value worth defending; he sees it as a campaign slogan in his bid for the White House. And he is setting freedom — and Florida’s reputation — ablaze in his desperation to win the GOP nomination,” he continued. “The nation should be on high alert. We are all Floridians as DeSantis seeks to export this blueprint of authoritarianism to the rest of the country.”