- Florida families are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a legal challenge to Florida state law.
- The trial will decide whether or not Florida’s ban on treatment for transgender minors will take effect.
- The ban is one of a host of laws signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting the LGBTQ+ population.
The mother of a transgender girl sobbed in federal court Wednesday as she contemplated having to move away from her Navy officer husband to get health care for her 12-year-old if Florida’s ban on gender dysphoria treatments for minors is allowed to take effect.
The woman, who testified as Jane Doe to protect the identity of her child, said her daughter went from being anxious and upset to a thriving, happy straight-A student after being allowed to live as a girl about eight years ago, a decision she made with her husband after multiple visits to their family’s doctor.
“I will go to the end of the Earth to get my daughter the help she needs,” the woman testified through sobs as she pulled tissues from a box. “I think about, will our family get torn apart? Will we have to live somewhere else away from my husband?”
The testimony came as a trial began challenging Florida’s ban on medical treatment for transgender children, such as hormone therapy or puberty blockers, a law pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has campaigned on the issue while seeking the presidency. The law also places restrictions on adult care.
“This all started with the governor,” said Thomas Redburn, a lawyer representing trans adults and the families of trans children.
Since the beginning of the year, DeSantis has signed multiple anti-transgender bills, which critics accused of furthering “genocidal rhetoric,” into law.
One law criminalized people using bathrooms that didn’t match their assigned sex at birth; another banned essentially all medical transition treatment for minors; and another allowed healthcare and health insurance providers to refuse care based on religious or moral beliefs, Business Insider previously reported.
DeSantis also requested data from public universities in the state on transgender healthcare, which left many frightened of social or medical repercussions.
Because of the laws, some trans people have already left the state after being told that they couldn’t their previous care anymore, regardless of their age.
Lawyer Mohammad Jazil, representing the state, said the law is a matter of protecting people. He said some people have decided to detransition back to their birth sex and learned their treatment has caused permanent damage.
Judge Robert Hinkle has temporarily blocked enforcement of the law pending the outcome of the trial. The lawsuit also challenges restrictions placed on adult trans care, which are being allowed to take effect during the trial.
The trial over trans health care is expected to last five days.
