After Heated Public Hearing, Florida Board of Medicine Confirms Ban on Transgender Treatments for Minors

LGBTQ activists overcame the hearing by shouting expletives as they waved transgender flags. An LGBT protester after Florida passed “Don’t Say Gay” / Getty Images

After a heated public hearing Florida’s Board of Medicine (and Board of Osteopathic Medicine) unanimously confirmed Friday a rule that prevents doctors prescribing certain treatments for children. “gender dysphoria.”

In the beginning, both boards had passed their exams. “Standards of Practice for the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in Minors” Following petitions from the Department of Health, it was approved in November. These standards forbid doctors from treating minors. “gender dysphoria” With sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapies. The Board of Osteopathic Medicine added an exception to its rule, allowing nonsurgical treatments on minors performed under “Clinical trials.”

While numerous state legislatures are considering protections against transgender treatments for children, Florida is the first state to pass these protections through an administrative process. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R.) Health Department asked last summer that two medical boards establish standards for transgender care.

Friday’s hearing saw a representative from the department ask the Osteopathic Board to cancel the exception. They argued that the board that allowed the exception would create confusion.

“The department is concerned the exception undermines the purpose of this rule,” John Wilson, general counsel to the Department of Health .

The Board unanimously voted in favor of eliminating the exception and confirming the standards as established by the Board of Medicine. This was to the horror of large numbers of LGBTQ activists who were present at the hearing.

While waving signs and flags of protest, attendees shouted expletives and waved transgender flags. Hecklers shouted obscenities and interrupted the board members’ defense. “Shame!” Two hours of public comments were heard by the board, mostly from transgender advocates who opposed the rule. During his testimony, a transgender man received a hormone injection before the board. Five law enforcement officers stood in between attendees and board members when the meeting adjourned.

Simone Chriss, director of Southern Legal Counsel’s Transgender Rights Initiative, reacted against the new standards by saying “the overwhelming weight of evidence and science” This is what the evidence shows. “access to treatment for gender dysphoria is safe, effective, and medically necessary.”

“That’s not true. The literature is not clear,” Dr. Hector Vila responded to the board, noting that “hundreds of studies,” Interviews with doctors and the testimonies that were reviewed by the boards when drafting these standards. “There is insufficient evidence