Crowd brings dueling messages as board discusses gender-confirming treatment for kids

The Florida Board of Medicine met to hear public comments on proposed rules by the DeSantis administration on gender-confirming surgeries or treatment for trans minors.

Dueling crowds gathered at the Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport on Friday morning in anticipation of the Florida Board of Medicine’s discussion on two rules proposed by the state surgeon general which would ban doctors from performing gender-confirmation surgeries and prescribing puberty blockers for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Several dozen people wearing “let kids be kids” and anti-HRT stickers filed into the hotel’s third floor conference room ahead of the board’s discussion and public comment period. From the vantage point of the conference room, security guards regularly peered out the thirdfloor windows at the crowd below.

Outside the hotel, about 200 protesters gathered for a press conference held by Equality Florida and other

LGBTQ advocacy groups.

Jeanette Jennings, the mother of trans activist Jazz Jennings, spoke to the crowd as her daughter stood in the audience.

“Jazz herself has told us, if she was forced to go through male puberty, she would have taken her life,” Jennings said.

“Kids like her are extremely marginalized. They face discrimination, bullying, cruelty, harassment and even physical assault. These kids should be able to look to their parents and adults to protect them. But instead, their state wants to subject them to more pain by taking away their medical care.”

Tatiana Williams, executive director and co-founder of the Broward-based Transinclusive Group, said banning access to gender-affirming care puts trans lives at risk.

She also addressed the Department of Health:

“You have to figure out what side of the fence that you’re on. Our lives shouldn’t be at the hands of a hidden agenda.”

Several speakers and spectators said the proposed rules are an attempt by Gov. Ron DeSantis to tee up a presidential run by currying favor from right-wing voters.

Robert Kesten, executive director of Stonewall National Museum & Archives, commented on the “let kids be kids” stickers worn by the rules’ proponents.

“The extreme right is very good at sloganing,” Kesten told the Herald. “It covers up bad policies and dislike for anything different than who they are.”

After the rally, the protesters moved into the increasingly-crowded conference room, where the Board of Medicine was moving through its lengthy docket of proposed disciplinary actions ahead of the proposed rules discussion.

In the last year, Florida has proposed more measures that restrict the lives of transgender youth than in any previous year. DeSantis and Republican state lawmakers have focused on trans youth’s participation in women’s sports, and now DeSantis’ administration is targeting medical care for youth who experience gender dysphoria.

The state is zeroing in on treatments such as puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy for trans youth. The idea behind the treatments will temporarily suppress puberty and give these kids more time to decide if they want to move forward with a medical transition.

DeSantis has said these treatments “disfigure” children and that doctors who prescribe such treatments should get sued.

On Thursday, DeSantis intensified the focus on the issue when he removed Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, partly for pledging not to enforce future laws prohibiting gender transition treatments for minors.

The state has no laws on gender transition treatment. However, DeSantis said Warren “thinks he has the authority to defy the Florida Legislature and nullify in his jurisdiction laws with which he disagrees,” hinting at potential legislation in the future.

Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.