Florida's Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Those Under 18
Ron DeSantis, a christian nationalist (catholic integralist fascist) who has a new ad out where he claims he was "created by god on the 8th day" to fight for (presumably) catholics, had his sham medical board ban trans care for kids and teens:
the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathy finalized their proposed rules to restrict gender affirming care for transgender youth in the state which, when in effect, will be the only ban on gender-affirming in effect in America. Similar measures in Alabama and Arkansas are currently blocked in court.
The board voted 6-3 (with five others not present) on Friday to adopt a new standard of care that forbids doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones, or perform surgeries, until transgender patients are 18. Exceptions will be allowed for children who are already receiving the treatments.
The penalty afaict will be to pull the license of any doctor they catch who provides gender affirming care to trans people under 18.
On Oct 28th the florida board of medicine had a meeting to decide this rule. They rustled up a set of fake experts with ties to the catholic Medical Association (CMA) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF,) all of whom flagrantly lied about trans care and trans people to advance their genocidal agenda.
(The CMA is a religious medical association in the "united states" with 2500 members who aim to force secular medical practitioners and standards into acting in alignment with the catholic church's teachings on what is licit medical care. That means no abortions for any reason, no voluntary sterilizations, no birth control of any kind, no transition care, and no medicines derived from stem-cell research, among many, many other restrictions. Their standards would see homosexuality equated to a disease that they claim is "preventable and treatable" through conversion therapy. In other words, they want you and your secular doctor to adhere to catholic ideology, even if neither of you are catholic, or even believe in a god. One in six hospital patients in the united states are now treated in a catholic facility with such restrictions and demands, and hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and behavioral health centers run by catholics will forcibly detransition trans people who are treated there, and will refuse to provide trans people with hrt, even when or if it puts their life at risk.)
These so-called "expert" witnesses were selected through the CMA and ADF to essentially be professional paid anti-trans witnesses. Yes, some of them are paid. Dr. Levine, for example, gets paid $400/hr to make up genocidal lies about trans people. He submitted a sham "expert" submission to the public agenda materials for the October 28 meeting.
Zinnia Jones, a reporter & researcher from genderanalysis.net has been covering the links between Ron DeSantis, the CMA, and Florida's Board of Medicine in depth. CMA members have written a majority of florida's Medicaid anti-trans reports. Members of the CMA sign a faith-based commitment against approving any transition care, no matter the evidence in favor of the efficacy of affirming care. They currently recommend conversion therapy by another name, a kind of torture meant to traumatize trans people into pretending to be cis.
In 2017, these experts were manufactured after a series of meetings between members of the ADF and CMA. Notably, one of the attendees was Ryan T. Anderson, a catholic integralist associated with Alito. Ryan wants abortions to be treated as homicides, and he apparently wrote the GOP game plan for overturning gay marriage.
Three of the five reports were written by members of the Catholic Medical Association, a far-right religious group which swore in a 2021 court filing that its members will never support a standard of care allowing medical transition on the basis of their faith, and Florida’s selection of these religiously-committed experts guaranteed a predetermined outcome: a majority of the Medicaid report writers would not recommend transition as safe or effective. (The other two reports were written by a sexologist who supports including pedophiles in “LGBT” as an “LGBTP”, and two associates of the anti-trans group SEGM.)
Some of these "experts," like Michael Laidlaw, an ACPeds member (ACPeds is an anti-LGBT hate group) who works with the ADF, (another anti-LGBT hate group,) & who presents at conferences that claim to "cure" homosexuality, were considered unbiased, objective sources of information on transgender people and their care. A member of a an anti-LGBT hate group is not an unbiased or reliable source of information on the health and well-being of LGBT people.
Laidlaw wanted to ban social transition, and had support for that kind of extreme state interference in the form of florida medical board member Patrick Hunter. Patrick Hunter was appointed by DeSantis this summer, and has clear conflicts of interest in the form of failing to disclose that he's a member of the CMA and that he's signed an anti-trans proposal to the American Academy of Pediatrics with SEGM's director.
(Levine worked with SEGM on a set of materials designed to be distributed to health professionals on how to disaffirm trans kids. SEGM and Genspect are essentially the same organization, and were exposed in 2021 by the Trans Safety Network as an anti-trans fake-science think tank. SEGM is interested in banning informed consent for adults, And SEGM members wrote a fake review that contributed to the florida AHA/Medicaid ban on trans-affirming care this past August (2022.) Three of the five "expert" reports for that ban were written by CMA members.)
The suggestion to ban social transition didn't make its way into the final ruling, but it's worth noting that christofascists who have access to state medical boards are floating the idea of banning social transition:
Patrick Hunter explicitly raised the faulty argument that social transition causes “persistence” of otherwise transient gender dysphoria; he then reasoned that “consent” for social transition by 12-year-old trans youth, a nonmedical change in gender expression such as name, pronouns, hairstyle and attire, would require the same capacity for informed consent as agreeing to genital surgery as an adult.
from: https://genderanalysis.net/2022/11/tracking-organized-anti-trans-submissions-to-the-florida-board-of-medicine-october-28-meeting-which-passed-a-ban-on-medical-transition-for-trans-youth/
This kind of junk science is common, and where transmisics frame "persistence" as an undesired symptom of transness as a mental illness, and "desistance" as a sign that someone has been "cured" of their gender dysphoria, like we're a disease that warrants curing. The language and framing of transgender people as a disease is explicitly genocidal, and is often a pretext for genocide.
Remember that anything these fascists try on kids they'll try on adults, next. So next, they'll argue that social transition "causes" the (according to them) "negative" "outcome" of persistence, so they'll claim that anyone who dresses androgynously, or behaves in ways that are not stereotypically associated with society's assigned gender role for them, or who try out a new name & pronouns are "putting themselves at risk" for "acquiring" "persistent" gender dysphoria.
In other words, Laidlaw and Hunter's "theory" on social transition is a pretext to claiming that gender non-conformity, androgyny, non-stereotypically gendered interests, and other atypical gender presentations are behaviors that put one at risk of "acquiring" gender dysphoria, which they're framing as an illness which has the qualities of an addiction. Like, as if we're addicted to hard drugs.
And that's how they'll treat us.
Some states permit "involuntary holds" (kidnapping and imprisonment of people who are deemed by society to be "mentally ill,") for addictions and behavior associated with addiction that the state, family members, or other involved parties believe are damaging to that person's health or the health of the community. That is the shape of the frame of the lie the CMA and associated transmisic groups are creating: that we're "addicted" to being perceived as our (real) gender, that the "reason" we have this "addiction" is due to other people affirming our transitions, (in order to frame the people who treat us with respect are "enablers of addiction,") and that the "cause" of this "addiction" is a "destructive sexual perversion" that makes us a "danger" to children and the wider community.
They intend to use this false narrative about affirming care "causing" persistance to claim that trans people are dangerous addicts who must be institutionalized for their own safety and the safety of the community.
(And those of us who will be kidnapped and imprisoned in these institutions will likely be tortured, sexually violated, and killed.)
However, these christofascists know they're swimming against reality. There's a lot of evidence that affirming trans people helps trans people, and plenty of examples of how disaffirming trans people harms them. That's why they're fabricating evidence for their claims.
Christian nationalists aren't basing their arguments in fact but instead fabricating and misrepresenting studies to back up their "belief" in a religious ideology that claims that the natural order of the world is one in which some of us are biologically destined to be patriarchs, and others are biologically destined to be domestic slaves.
Catholic integralists and christian nationalists ("allied" fascist ideologies with a strong overlap,) see trans people as a direct threat to their delusional worldview because we step across what to them should be an inviolable boundary between man and woman:
Traditional christian doctrine teaches that this dominance hierarchy is written on the heart of every human, that everyone secretly knows deep down that it’s true, and that no one can find meaning or happiness outside of it, and that anyone who claims they have is lying or crazy. This is of course a blatant lie, something they only wish were true. And the dominance hierarchy they created exists to sustain the lie that true anarchistic friendship cannot exist.
In the family, people raised as men are taught that their birthright is to be a patriarch, the head of the household. His reward for submitting to the hierarchy is a wife to serve him, and children through which he might gain another pale substitution for eternity. He’s told that women want this, were born for it, and when he keeps encountering evidence to the contrary, and evidence that the whole hierarchy is a sham and not something actually reflected in nature, he needs to use violence to maintain it, and generate an explanation for why it isn’t working out.
Deep down he knows his wife is a person, just like him, and that makes him like her, like a woman. And all the other humans say women are subjugated and like it, and if others find out that things aren’t going so swimmingly for him, they might take away his reward and subjugate him, too. Except all the other guys secretly fear the same thing. Because they all know deep down it’s a lie.
So they all collectively gotta externalize that shit, destroy the knowledge that they’re like the people they’re subjugating, so he and his culture attack feminine men, and exaggerate and fabricate differences between men and women so that boundary cannot be crossed. The few such humans who are more honest about their own delusions will claim that these lies are a “necessary sacrifice” for the sake of order and the perpetuation of society, and will tell you that you’re crazy if you don’t acknowledge this “brutal truth” of “nature.”
Queer people, unbroken children, and agentic women directly challenge that illusion. Queer people do so acutely by directly vanishing this boundary. Our very existence reveals the whole thing to be a sham. Historically, queerness has been all about playing with, erasing, and violating the boundaries of that illusion.
In other words, our existence is strong evidence that catholic beliefs about human nature are a lie, and in response to encountering evidence that they've been lied to, these catholic integralists are trying to erase the evidence (us) that they're wrong.
In service of that goal, the florida medical board itself has been captured by the CMA, as Ron DeSantis, a catholic christian nationalist, appointed sycophants and CMA theocrats and other fascists to it in the name of criminalizing trans care:
Additionally, CMA member and anti-trans expert witness Patrick Hunter was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Board of Medicine this June and voted to advance the proposed ban at the August 5 and October 28 meetings, neglecting to recuse himself despite his preexisting personal commitment to disapprove of our standards of care in all cases. This has effectively generated a backdoor theocracy within Florida state health agencies through executive action to select a set of preferred “experts”: their individual religious views will guarantee a particular anti-trans faith-based policy, imposed on the rest of us as private citizens by the laws of a supposedly secular government.
from: https://genderanalysis.net/2022/11/tracking-organized-anti-trans-submissions-to-the-florida-board-of-medicine-october-28-meeting-which-passed-a-ban-on-medical-transition-for-trans-youth/
Current board members have donated a combined $80,000 to Ron DeSantis, and almost all of these donations took place before these ghouls were appointed to the board... by Ron DeSantis. Man, sure looks like these ghouls paid for the dishonor of getting appointed to this sham board by Ron DeSantis, and chose to use their appointments to genocide trans people on DeSantis's behalf after DeSantis couldn't pass legislation to ban transition care.
And of course this strategy of sham experts and captured medical boards is and will be copied by fascists in states like texas, arkansas, alabama, where anti-trans genocidal sentiment is high. That's why exposing these fake "experts" and the CMA's goals is so important, because these ghouls are attempting to launder their religious bigotry with the supposed "respectability" of medical boards and editorial reviews, to paint a veneer of credibility over a set of outrageous lies and obvious bias. These ghouls anticipate that other humans will b more willing to go along with these lies if they are coming from a "medical board" and "experts." But that only works so long as people keep pretending members of anti-LGBT hate groups who are being paid to make up lies about trans care should have any say in deciding anything related to trans care.
(And yes, I know religious extremists are shameless liars who will keep pretending that these blatantly biased liars are "experts," but they're not the targets of this kind of reporting, and making information common knowledge has power.)
Not one single person on this board has any significant experience working with trans people. The board prevented activists and witnesses from speaking against the ban, and ended the meeting early to prevent affirming speakers from commenting. It's also worth noting that the Florida board has obstructed peoples' ability to view their meetings, and haven't published the minutes from recent meetings, yet.
The result is exactly the situation we're in now where we can't track most of what these officials said yesterday, or meaningfully hold them accountable for the substance of their conduct. That's another serious issue in what's already a completely illegitimate process.
And when people complained on the fourth, an activist who called DeSantis a nazi was apparently forcibly removed from the meeting.
These bans are now in place for under 18s, but the board is interested in banning or restricting trans-affirming care for adults, too.
Members of the board, specifically Sandra Schwemmer, suggested creating registries for trans youth. It's possible she suggested this because Patrick Hunter wanted to know what kind of data a trans-affirming doctor, Dr. Dayton, kept on her patients. In this context of CMA members and a theocratic board of medicine, though, that request looks pretty sinister to me.
In all of this, my main takeaways are that these genocidal transmisic ghouls are willing to flagrantly lie and flat-out make up "evidence" to create the pretext for trans genocide. We're looking at a future of nationwide registries of all trans people, nationwide bans of trans-affirming care for children and adults, and potentially state or district-wide support for the policing of social transition, which will translate not only to harassment, kidnapping, jailing, and killings of trans people, but to the harassment, kidnapping, jailing, and killing of people whose gender expression looks even a little queer or nonconfirming.
When I say this is genocide, I'm not being hyperbolic. I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating. Bakeries are being firebombed by fascists for hosting people in drag. The GOP is spending $50 million dollars in ads to specifically spread anti-trans propaganda across TV, radio, and digital sources. Multiple hospitals have received threats, including a bomb threat, because they provided gender-affirming care to children and teens. Fascists are threatening schools that protect trans kids, resulting in more bomb threats. Schools and libraries are responding to harassment over stocking queer books by banning those books. The courts are no longer working to legislate in "favor" of LGBTQ people, as the court has been captured by religious extremists, so lawsuits are unlikely to work as an effective threat against far-right "lawmakers".
I've previously written,
The laws written by christofascists follow a theme that illustrates their purpose when all are viewed together: to erase us culturally and bodily from society.
First, right wing legislatures ban queer literature from libraries, schools, and universities, aiming to fundamentally change the character of colleges. Then they go further and criminalize the sale of queer books, entirely.
They're not just interested in erasing queer literature, but are using calls for rating guides that identify LGBT content in TV shows and movies as a prelude to banning queer representation from TV. They claim there are no trans kids and that the only way to get trans children is through propaganda.
One candidate for office is currently suggesting that "sharing LGBT ideology" is an "un-american activity" punishable by death & calls for a revival of the house committee on un-american activities (HCUA) for the single purpose of hunting down and killing queers. He's not getting any pushback from his fellows on the right. Other legislators and AGs are generally supportive of similar schemes to enforce the criminalization of sodomy and ban queer life from public life. And their pastors are calling for the mass genocide of queer people.
And their views are spreading. A recent report finds strong support in the "united states" for far-right ideology:
The current rhetoric at senate hearings is that trans people don't exist at all, and that the federal government should end recognition of trans people entirely. Various attempts are being tried, including the attempts to ban drag around minors as a prelude to claiming that drag is equivalent to being trans, to re-institute cross-dressing bans.
from: https://at.tumblr.com/plumofdiscord/the-vast-majority-of-americans-on-the-left-side-of/wzrmb5zfoh9z
So no, it's not hyperbole. We're already past the start of a trans genocide.
So if you don't own a gun, consider getting one, learning to shoot it, and investigating community self-defense. Fascist militias are an arm of the anti-trans genocide who are acting as low-level enforcers, and significantly disrupting their activities is effective self-defense.
I also recommend stocking up on hormones, because HRT API suppliers in china are facing a fascist crackdown, and there may be a disruption or decreased supply in the raw hormones your DIY providers purchase, and we will probably be facing even more issues acquiring hormones from doctors and pharmacies in the next few years, so learning about DIY if you want to continue your transition is also another thing one can do.
In general, the DHS is tracking and attempting to break down activist movementss who its members believe threaten the stability of the state. Due to the mental profiles of the kind of soulless ghoul who is willing to work for a fascistic state agency that exists to manufacture terrorist scares, and worked to re-elect Trump, they're far more interested in perceived threats from left-wing causes than right. And respecting trans people as people gets pegged by the DHS and associated goons as a left-wing "cause." This means that the state will be performing counter-insurgency efforts towards trans activists and the general community, because to fascists like that, an open trans person is a dangerous radical activist, and people who work in those offices want to believe we're dangerous radical activists, because claiming we are means they get bigger paychecks or keep their budget.
The main goal of counter-insurgency is to split the activist or marginalized community members off from the wide community. The pattern looks something like, "remove support, isolate them, then kidnap or assassinate them." Butchanarchy wrote a long thread which outlines and breaks down counter-insurgency efforts and how to counter them, so that might also be worth taking a look at.
Also, this post leans heavily on Zinnia Jones's, Alejandra Caraballo's and Erin Reed's reporting. In particular, Zinnia's the only human I know of who is working on links between the CMA and anti-trans fascist action. This kind of reporting is really important, and will likely become even harder to find in the coming years, so if you think you might want to do that kind of investigative reporting, there is definitely a need for it.
