Florida Secretary of Health Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo addresses the state Board of Medicine during a discussion regarding a proposed rule by the DeSantis administration to prohibit physicians from performing gender-affirming or gender-blocking operations. puberty in minors. Jose A. Iglesias [email protected]
The Florida Board of Medicine voted Friday to start the rulemaking process for minors seeking gender confirmation therapy, hormones and operations.
With the exception of Dr. Kevin Cairns, the Board members present voted during their meeting in Dania Beach in favor of starting the rulemaking process. The vote follows a petition from the Department of Health, proposing rules that would prohibit doctors from performing gender confirmation operations and prescribing puberty blocks for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
State Health Secretary Joseph Ladapo, who has advocated for rules banning gender confirmation surgeries and hormones for minors, offered his support for the Health Department’s request at the start of Friday’s debate at the airport’s Marriott Hotel. from Fort Lauderdale.
“Puberty is a very complex and confusing time,” Ladapo said. “In terms of security, it is incontrovertible. It is clear that there is a level of risk with these procedures, both hormone therapy and hormone blockades for people who are in puberty and for operations.
The nearly three-hour public comment period, which Board President Dr. David Diamond inexplicably shortened by an hour, ended with members of the crowd chanting “shame” on the Board and security personnel ejecting or at least one person who tried to speak following the public comment period concluded.
“They are lapdogs of the governor,” one man yelled before walking out of the conference room. “The Secretary of Health is a lapdog of the governor.”
Also in attendance were many advocates of the rulemaking process, identifiable by stickers reading “Let Kids Be Kids.” For the most part, they argued that children are too young to make important medical decisions.
“I don’t think a child can give informed consent,” said Dennis Conklin of Plantation.
Some tell their stories
But that view was contrasted with comments from speakers who are now adults and transitioned as teenagers.
College student Kaleb Hobson-Garcia said he was 13 when he started taking testosterone and 14 when he started the process for the “superior operation.” He added that his doctor made him wait a year between each major new step in the transition process.
“My identity is not an epidemic,” Hobson-Garcia said. Diamond, the president of the Board, asked Hobson-Garcia to explain the concept of gender fluidity and whether or not that means that trans children will end up detransitioning.
“I am a binary man. My identity will not change, just like yours,” Hobson-Garcia replied. “If that identity hasn’t changed in a decade, I think we have to trust that person to know who they are.”
Currently, the state does not have laws regarding gender transition treatment. However, Dr. Michael Haller, chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Florida (UF), explained that medical institutions such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have established a standard of care that dictates, for example, that puberty blocks should not be given to boys before puberty begins, that mastectomies should only be offered to those aged 16 years or older, and that genital operations should only be offered to persons aged 18 years or older.
“This has been presented to you, the Board, as a political maneuver,” Haller said of the Health Department’s request. “Trans people have always existed. They will always exist. That you decide to recognize them does not change that.”
After Friday’s vote, the Health Department will begin rulemaking workshops with dates and locations to be determined. It is unclear what timetable, if any, the Board has in mind for establishing these guidelines.
Board member Dr. Patrick Hunter said he was voting in favor of rulemaking, in part because he doesn’t think the Health Department’s proposals are nuanced enough.
“It sends a message that these kids don’t need care, and they do,” Hunter said. “The question is: what is the best care?
“I have heard that there is only one path to trans identity,” she said, “and that is to be born that way.”
