On Thursday, a federal judge claimed that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president in 2024, repeatedly spread false information about so-called “gender affirming” care, which includes hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex reassignment surgeries.
According to the Associated Press, Judge Robert Hinkle of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida heard a challenge to a ban on this type of irreversible, experimental “care” for minors.
In its report, AP claimed that Hinkle told Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer from the state, that the law “was sold as defending children from mutilation when it is actually about preventing trans children from getting health care.”
“When I’m analyzing the governor’s motivation, what should I make of these statements?” Hinkle reportedly asked. “This seems to be more than just hyperbole.”
Hinkle is expected to rule in 2024 on whether the state Legislature, the Florida Department of Health and DeSantis deliberately targeted transgender people through the new law.
Jazil reportedly said that the motivation behind the law was public safety in areas that need more oversight than before.
“It’s about treating a medical condition; it’s not about targeting transgender individuals,” Jazil said, adding that if the law were meant to target transgender people, it would have banned all treatments for adults and children.
Judge: DeSantis spread false information while pushing trans health care ban, restrictions https://t.co/0ZL9ldVBZI
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 22, 2023
Reportedly, Hinkle, who was appointed by Democrat President Bill Clinton, said he would decide “as quick as I can.” The Hill added that three Florida families with transgender children sued the state over the law, arguing that it would cause harm to the children and infringe upon their rights as parents to make medical decisions for their kids.
DeSantis signed off on the law in May.
“There’s a lot of nonsense that gets floated around,” DeSantis said at the time the legislation was signed, according to Politico. “What we’ve said in Florida is we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy. Kids should have an upbringing that reflects that.”
Over 20 states have laws on the books that protect children from irreversible transgender care. This month, Townhall covered how one detransitioner, Isabelle Ayala, 20, said that she would sue the American Academy of Pediatrics for the role it played in her undergoing gender care as a teenager. Ayala was approved to take hormones when she was a minor after one session with a doctor that lasted 45 minutes.
“While I was there, the doctors were very affirmative. They sat my parents down, were kind of like, pinned them to the wall, basically being like, ‘Hey, if you don’t affirm your child, your child is going to kill themselves,” she said.
When Ayala moved to a different state, her doctor sent her with a year’s worth of refills on her hormones but never reached out to check up on her.
“That in itself I think is malpractice,” she said. “I don’t think he [doctor] checked up on me at all.”
During the 2020 lockdowns, Ayala quit testosterone “cold turkey.”
“I still struggle a lot, mentally and physically,” Ayala said.
“I don’t even like to think about my fertility,” she added. “It is my greatest fear to go to the gynecologist and have them tell me that I can’t have children over some decisions that were made when I was 14.”
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