I worry about our trans brothers and sisters that live in Florida, a new legislative session has begun and with a whole slew of anti-trans legislation has been introduced.
My questions are:As transgender Floridians grapple with the fallout of a new driver's license policy, a bill with even farther-reaching implications is gaining momentum in the state House.
What's happening: Lawmakers in the House Infrastructure Strategies Committee approved House Bill 1639 on Thursday after more than two hours of public comment, mostly from speakers, many of them trans, who opposed the bill.
Why it matters: The legislation is another in a long line of GOP-led policies restricting health care, public expression and more for trans Floridians and the broader LGBTQ+ community, advocates and Democratic lawmakers say.
What they're saying: "The only clarity this bill provides is its lack of compassion for transgender Floridians like me and its intent to escalate state discrimination," Quinn Diaz, a public policy associate for Equality Florida, told lawmakers Thursday.
Details: HB 1639 would codify in law a recent change in state policy requiring trans people to display their sex assigned at birth, not gender, on their driver's licenses.
- It would require health insurance companies that cover transition-related medical care to also cover care for those who detransition — a choice that several speakers noted, and studies show, is rare.
- The legislation also mandates that health insurers cover "mental health or therapeutic services to treat a person's perception that his or her sex … is inconsistent with such person's sex at birth by affirming the insured's sex."
- What about the trans people who live in Florida but were born in another state that allow birth certificate changes, will Florida recognized the change?
- What about those who already changed their license will Florida change them back to their gender assigned at birth?
The governor is working off his frustration of not being the next president.
Sadly America is reverting back to the era of Jim Crow, when trans people need to wear three items of male clothing, and gays could be jailed.Ron DeSantis’ Anti-LGBTQ+ Push Didn’t Work Nationally. But It’s Working Too Well In Florida.
The last year of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ agenda has offered a window into what the future might look like for queer and trans residents of the state.
HuffPost
By Lil Kalish
Jan 25, 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination earlier this week. It was the end of his less-than-year-long presidential bid, in which he has repeatedly attacked the LGBTQ+ community in the hopes of scoring political points with Republicans.
When she saw the news that DeSantis was out of the race, Floridian Simone Chriss said she felt a brief moment of relief.
“Thank God he’s not going to be at the helm of our country,” she recalled thinking.
But Chriss, a civil rights lawyer at Southern Legal Counsel in Gainesville, is also worried about the governor turning his undivided attention back home. “The other side of me was like, ‘He’s not distracted now and campaigning and traveling and focused on the presidency. He’s going to have all of his volatility and hostility and whatever motivates him just to laser focus back on Florida.’”
[…]
These laws have created widespread fear, prompting hundreds to leave Florida in order to find gender-affirming care for their children or themselves. Scores more Floridians, like many of Chriss’ clients, cannot afford to move, whether due to their jobs, the financial toll, or simply because Florida is their home.
I spent the better part of my adult life here in Florida, actively femulating, living near 100% as female through much of that time. I went wherever I wanted to go, using ladies' rest rooms, changing rooms, etc. I passed pretty well, but not 100%, and of those who ascertained my birth sex (or when I volunteered such information), reactions were almost always neutral-to-positive, rarely negative, and never threatening. I'm pretty sure if I were the same age in 2024, I would in no way step outside my home in female clothes - I would be scared to death now. Through the last few decades, as I saw society become more tolerant, accepting, and progressive, I was still of the mind that it was too good to be true, and that sooner or later, there would be a right-wing backlash. I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Once they had an opening with an evil idiot suddenly in charge, all the assholes crawled out and started to seize power. Frankly, I am slowly dying from my medical issues, and as ghoulish as it sounds, I hope I will die quickly and not have to witness the utter collapse of the country I love.
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