On Friday March 10, 2023, we sent a letter to our Florida families with youth patients. Several alarming bills in the Florida legislature have prompted us to recommend that Florida families with transgender youth have preparations to leave Florida in case they pass.
We’ll include the text of the letter below, but, first,
Updates on Florida Bills since March 10th
SB 254 passed out of the Senate Health Policy committee on March 13th. It moves to the Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy next. Their next meeting is on March 16th, but SB 254 is not currently on the agenda. This could change. Please contact the committee members and urge them to vote no.
Sign up for Equality Florida’s Rapid Response Alert List to get notified of urgent actions you can take.
- SB 254 – Treatments for Sex Reassignment
- The state could take custody of your child.
- Gives temporary emergency jurisdiction to a court in the state of Florida for youth who receive gender affirming care.
- It also applies to siblings of youth receiving care and children of parents receiving gender affirming care.
- It applies to any child physically in Florida, not just residents.
- Grants Florida courts the jurisdiction to vacate, stay, or modify child custody determinations made in other states under certain circumstances
- It also bans all medical care for transition purposes to minors, including referrals.
- Exceptions can be made for minors who were already receiving care.
- Includes a clause that makes each section of the bill independent of the others. If any one section of the bill is ruled invalid or illegal, the rest still stand. Each section will need to be litigated separately.
HB1223 Passed in committee today, March 14th. It is not clear what the next steps are, as the Florida House web page for the bill has not been updated. (We detailed the companion Senate bill in our letter – see below.)
- HB1223 – Pronouns and Education
- Defines sex as a binary division based on “reproductive function” and declares that it is immutable (not changeable)
- In K-12 educational institutions, pronouns must align with the individuals sex as defined by the law.
- Employees or contractors in K-12 institutions may not provide a student with their pronouns or title if they “do not correspond to his or her sex.”
- Charter schools may not include sexual orientation or gender in educational topics up to grade 8.
- Private prekindergarten and public schools may not provide instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity AT ALL.
- Schools may not adopt policies that withold any information about the student’s well-being from parents
- Includes a clause that makes each section of the bill independent of the others. If any one section of the bill is ruled invalid or illegal, the rest still stand. Each section will need to be litigated separately.
Our March 10, 2023 letter to our Florida families.
Text:
To Our Florida Families:
With heavy hearts, we are writing you today to share some updates about proposed legislation in Florida. We don’t want to scare you unnecessarily, but multiple bills in the Florida legislature would make Florida unsafe for transgender youth and adults, should they become laws. Due to the current political climate in Florida and the governor’s demonstrated practice of unconstitutional actions, we are concerned about the possibility of any of these bills becoming law. We want you to be able to prepare for those possibilities.
We have summarized the most threatening pieces of legislation here, and we recommend using the ACLU’s legislation tracker to see ALL currently proposed legislation:
- HB 1421 – Gender Clinical Interventions
- Bans changes to biological sex marker field on birth certificates.
- Prohibits all gender affirming medical care for youth – your youth would have to stop treatment, and others would not be able to start.
- Adults obtaining care would be required to provide written consent for gender affirming care at every visit.
- Prohibits public funds from being given to any individual or organization that provides gender affirming care to minors in any capacity.
- Prohibits health insurance companies from covering gender affirming care for any minor.
- SB 254 – Treatments for Sex Reassignment
- The state could take custody of your child.
- Gives temporary emergency jurisdiction to a court in the state of Florida for youth who receive gender affirming care.
- It also applies to siblings of youth receiving care and children of parents receiving gender affirming care.
- It applies to any child physically in Florida, not just residents.
- Grants Florida courts the jurisdiction to vacate, stay, or modify child custody determinations made in other states under certain circumstances
- It also bans all medical care for transition purposes to minors, including referrals.
- Exceptions can be made for minors who were already receiving care.
- Includes a clause that makes each section of the bill independent of the others. If any one section of the bill is ruled invalid or illegal, the rest still stand. Each section will need to be litigated separately.
- HB1521/SB1674– Facility Requirements Based on Sex;
- Individuals may only enter and use restrooms matching their sex assigned at birth in schools or public buildings.
- Assigns a second-degree misdemeanor for individuals aged 18 and older if they do not immediately leave a bathroom upon being told to do so.
- Exceptions can be made for caregivers, medical emergencies, law enforcement, and maintenance, or when no other person is in the facility.
- Educational and public institutions and health care facilities may provide restrooms or changing rooms for females or males only, as well as single occupancy facilities.
- Domestic violence centers and correctional facilities must house people separated by the sex assigned at birth, except for mixed-sex family units at domestic violence centers.
- Includes a clause that makes each section of the bill independent of the others. If any one section of the bill is ruled invalid or illegal, the rest still stand. Each section will need to be litigated separately.
- SB1320/HB1223 – Child Protection in Public Schools;
- Defines the term “sex” as “binary, stable, and unchangeable” and that sex is determined by genitalia at birth, chromosomal makeup, endogenous (made by the body) hormones, and reproductive roles.
- Prohibits employees, contractors, and students from asking about or using any title or pronoun different from those associated with the sex assigned at birth.
- Prohibits teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to students before grade nine.
- Requires all sex ed courses and materials to reference only binary sex roles and be approved by the Department of Education.
- School boards must have policies and operations that allow objections to materials to be filed. Updates the definition of objectionable content to align with other laws and include any depiction of sexual conduct.
- Includes a clause that makes each section of the bill independent of the others. If any one section of the bill is ruled invalid or illegal, the rest still stand. Each section will need to be litigated separately.
We recommend you follow Senate Bill 254 closely. If passed, you and your youth may be at immediate risk. We recommend that you have a plan for this in place for this possibility now.
A phenomenal trans activist, Erin Reed, created a US map demonstrating safer and less safe states. States with laws or executive orders that protect families who have had to leave their home states to access gender affirming care for minors include California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington, DC.
Maryland, New Mexico, and Washington have proposed shield laws in their legislatures.
We recommend that you follow some of the following organizations and creators to stay up-to-date on Florida happenings:
We encourage you all to write your Florida State senators and representatives. We have a recommended template for a letter urging a no vote on SB254 here.
SB254 is scheduled for a committee hearing on Monday, March 13th. Please consider contacting the committee senators:
- Senator Jason Brodeur – 850-487-5010
- Senator Alexis Calatayud – 850-487-5038
- Senator Gayle Harrell – 850-487-5031
- Senator Ileana Garcia – 850-487-5036
- Email via Equality Florida
We fervently hope that you will not need to face a decision to leave Florida. QueerDoc is committed to providing gender affirming care, fighting against medical discrimination, and advocating against discriminatory laws – especially in the states where we practice. We will continue providing care as long as we are legally able to do so in each of the states we practice in.
As the political climate worsens, we are also taking steps to protect our ability to continue providing gender affirming care. As a part of this, we will be reviewing charts in the next few days to confirm that we have current records and documents on file. If any are needed for your youth’s files, we will be in touch.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
