They Are In Competition On Who Can Come Up With The Most Draconian Law!

It seems that Texas and Florida are competing to see who can criminalize us the first.

Florida Advanced a Bill That Could Separate Trans Kids From Affirming Parents

If passed, SB 254 would allow the state to take temporary “physical custody” of minors receiving gender-affirming care.

Them

By Samantha Riedel

April 21, 2023

The Florida House of Representatives approved three anti-LGTBQ+ bills on Wednesday, including one that could be used to forcibly separate affirming parents from their transgender children during custody battles, in a continuation of the state’s troubling legislative attacks on the queer and trans community.

Lawmakers in the lower house of the state legislature voted 82-31 to approve an amended version of Senate Bill 254, which was first introduced in March by Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough. The bill would classify gender-affirming care for minors — including puberty blockers and hormone therapy — as a form of “serious physical harm” that courts could cite to justify temporarily taking “physical custody of the child” during custody enforcement hearings.

SB 254 would also prohibit state funds from being used to provide gender-affirming care, and direct the state Board of Medicine to adopt emergency rules regarding trans minors already receiving care, adding to the ongoing atmosphere of confusion about those rules in Florida.

[…]

“I can’t believe I’m writing this,” former Democratic Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith posted on Twitter last month regarding SB 254. “Parents would be charged with felonies [and] thrown in prison. This is fascist.”

Although not yet formally passed into law, SB 1438 is already having a chilling effect. Hours before the House vote on Wednesday, organizers with Pride of the Treasure Coast announced in a Facebook post that they were canceling plans for this year’s Pride parade in June and would limit attendance at their annual PrideFest event to those 21 and over. Organizers cited SB 1438 as the reason for the changes.

Then there are the other laws against us that Florida has are is trying to pass.

Florida Can’t Take Trans Teens From Their Parents

Bloomberg via Washington Post

Analysis by Noah Feldman

April 21, 2023

[...]

One problem with the Florida bill is that it overrides regulatory decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration. The drugs known as puberty blockers, which can be used in the treatment of gender-affirming care, have been around for 30 years and are safe and legal when prescribed by a physician. The Florida law is designed to make it impossible to administer those drugs to minors in the state.

Under the principal known as federal preemption, Congress can choose to assume exclusive federal control over regulating a given area, such as nuclear power or pharmaceuticals. Congress exercised that power to make the FDA the sole judge of what drugs are appropriate for medical use and how they should be regulated.

[…]

Turning to the Constitution, there are at least two provisions that the Florida bill would violate. First, by denying medical care to trans people in particular, the law discriminates. For example, under the bill parents could choose to give puberty blockers to a child experiencing early puberty. The fact that the same parents could not use the same drugs when prescribed by a physician for gender dysphoria shows the unconstitutional double standard.

You know what will happen if and when the laws get overturned… the Republicans will rally their base with the “Activist Judges” never mind that it was overturned by Trump appointees but the Republicans will forget that little fact.

***

23/7 wrote that,

To determine which states are restricting transgender health care, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on anti-trans health care legislation by state from Axios. The legislative status of anti-trans bills are current as of March 23, 2023. The 31 states with pending or active anti-trans legislation are ordered alphabetically. (These are the worst American states for health care.)

Kansas, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are proposing bans that not only target minors but anyone under the age of 21. A bill in Texas would ban gender affirming medical care for trans people under the age of 26. Some bills seek to give people who received gender-affirming care as minors to sue for medical malpractice well into their adulthood, well beyond the typical statute of limitations for such civil litigation.

You know the Republican manta “Parent’s Rights” but it seems to end when it goes against the Republican ideology.