Florida considers banning medicalized gender transitions for children

( Post Millennial )

A joint committee of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine is set to meet on September 30 to discuss a draft rule that would restrict doctors from performing medical gender transition procedures such as mastectomies, hysterectomies, penile inversions, and hormone therapy on children.

A notice published on Sept. 7 in the Florida Administrative Register said the joint committee "will conduct a rule workshop and meeting to receive and consider presentations from subject matter experts and comments from the public, and to discuss and develop draft rule language related to practice standards for the treatment of gender dysphoria."

The meeting, which will be held in the state capital of Tallahassee, comes after the Florida Department of Health in July filed a petition seeking a rule-making process on the issue of performing such procedures on minors to ease gender dysphoria, reported Orlando Weekly.

The proposed petition would prohibit minors from receiving sex-reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking hormone treatments, and would also require that older patients sign a consent form and wait 24 hours before starting such treatments.

Ahead of the meeting, Genspect, a group of professionals who express concerns regarding the current "gender-affirming approach," has urged people to write to the Florida Board of Medicine about the "harms of hormones & surgeries, token "assessments", activist clinicians, poor evidence, lack of longterm studies, desistance, detransition."

The group also noted that "in-person expert, patient and parent testimony are also needed in Tallahassee, Florida on 3 dates: 9/30, 10/6, 10/7."