Ron DeSantis (R-Asshole) has done it. He has successfully turned Florida into America’s biggest crucible of fascism, and he wants to do it nationally. Today he signed a slate of new draconian anti-trans legislation into law, spreading pure disinformation and lies about trans people as justification, making Florida the first state to criminalize any gender expression other than what HE decides is “normal”.
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The list of laws includes a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, restrictions on such care for adults, a ban on all-ages drag shows, and an anti-trans bathroom bill.
“As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy,” DeSantis said during his signing ceremony at a Christian school.
This is, of course, what fascists ALWAYS say when they criminalize entire populations of people who refuse to conform to the very narrow lanes that fascists like DeSantis create for society.
From LGBTQ Nation:
“This will permanently outlaw the mutilation of minors,” DeSantis said, repeating a false right-wing claim at his bill-signing ceremony in Tampa. “I mean, they’re trying to do sex change operations on minors, giving them puberty blockers and doing things that are irreversible to them. We think this is very wrong.”
Well that’s great because IT’S NOT FUCKING HAPPENING, Meatball Ron. Minors are NOT getting sex change operations, and puberty blockers have been PROVEN to be safe AND reversible.
Puberty blockers and HRT are safe, reversible, have been prescribed to children for decades, and are considered essential to the well-being of trans people by major U.S. and world health organizations. Gender-affirming genital surgeries are not conducted on transgender minors. The bill has exceptions for gender-assignment surgeries for intersex youth.
Oh well it’s nice that they recognize that intersex youth exist, I guess.
A related law requires trans adults to obtain written consent from the state’s Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine. Both boards have members appointed by DeSantis, Reuters reported.
So yet again DeSantis proves that this has nothing to do with “protecting children” and EVERYTHING to do with punishing trans people for simply existing. A reminder that gender transition has a VERY clear and well defined procedure as outlined in the WPATH Standards of Care, a guide that every doctor treating gender dysphoria follows.
Another law allows state officials to take temporary custody of children who may be receiving gender-affirming care now or in the future. The bill also gives a non-supportive parent preferred child custody rights in court divorce proceedings, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted.
In a statement, Joe Saunders, senior political director of Equality Florida, wrote, “DeSantis has just signed into law the largest slate of anti-LGBTQ bills in one legislative session in the state’s history. This is an all out attack on freedom.”
“DeSantis doesn’t see freedom as a value worth defending, he sees it as a campaign slogan in his bid for the White House. And he is setting freedom — and Florida’s reputation — ablaze in his desperation to win the GOP nomination,” Saunders added. “The nation should be on high alert. We are all Floridians as DeSantis seeks to export this blueprint of authoritarianism to the rest of the country.”
If you’re a parent in Florida and your child is receiving gender-affirming care, Ron DeSantis has decided that the STATE can take custody of YOUR child. He has also signed an expansion to his infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law that resulted in him being sued by Disney, a private corporation that he’s decided doesn’t have Freedom of Speech rights.
He has also criminalized trans people using any bathrooms other than what was assigned at birth, though I have no idea how he plans on enforcing this other than posting bathroom police in front of every shitter. DeSantis again lies and claims that this will “promote women’s safety” because he believes the myth of the transgender sexual predator, as do all MAGA Republicans. Of course he says nothing about trans men using men’s rooms because as usual trans men don’t even enter into the conversation. But as we all know anyone who doesn’t fit into his rigidly-defined concept of “normal” will be punished, including actual women who don’t conform to society’s antiquated definition of femininity.
DeSantis is obviously trying to polish his fascist bona-fides in preparation for a Presidential run because he thinks that demonizing trans folks will be his path to the White House. Of course other Republican-led states are enacting their own vicious campaigns against the trans community as a whole, and the ACLU as well as other pro-LGBTQ+ organizations are fighting back in court. You can be sure that their lawyers are reviewing these laws VERY carefully right now and they WILL fight back in court because this shit is BLATANTLY unconstitutional.
Your daily reminder that one of the first segments of the population that the Nazis attacked were the LGBTQ+ community in Germany.
You can read more at LGBTQ Nation, but be bring your barf bag because it might make you feel sick to your stomach.
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