DeSantis announces he would sign legislation banning transgender surgeries for minors

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he would “for sure” sign legislation that bans transgender surgeries for minors.

DeSantis says he is “very much opposed to chemical castration of minors, I honestly didn’t know this existed until a few years ago.” When asked whether he would ban such procedures he said “That would be something I would sign for sure.”

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Attempts to ban transition surgeries for minor children have failed in the Florida legislature in the past. The Youth Gender and Sexual Identity Act died in a Professions & Public Health Subcommittee on April 30.

DeSantis signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act last week which bans biological males from competing in girl’s sports. “It’s discrimination against our women athletes to force them to participate against male athletes,” DeSantis said.

“It needs to be a level playing field, and it needs to be fair, and it should all be based on biology, not based on ideology,” he added.

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DeSantis pushed back on corporations that have vowed to pull out of Florida over the new law saying that he won’t be caving in to pressure from “woke” companies or handing over “the reigns of government to them,” allowing them to “set the policy.”

The announcement comes as DeSantis made a series of budget cuts in the recently passed state budget for funding of LGBTQ organizations across Florida. The cuts included $150,000 for the Orlando United Assistance Center, which provides mental health services and counseling for the survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and $750,000 for the Zebra Coalition which is seeking to transform a rundown Orlando hotel into housing for LGBTQ youth.  

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Arkansas became the first state to ban transgender surgeries for minors after the state legislature overrode a veto by Governor Asa Hutchinson in April. Hutchinson received criticism from Republicans over his argument for vetoing the bill, stating that the law gave too much power to the state to make decisions that should be made by families and doctors. The law prohibits medical and surgical treatments aiming to “add, remove, or alter” a minor’s physical attributes from their “biological sex” as determined at birth.

In March, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order banning biological males from playing in women’s sports.

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