DeSantis Signs Draconian Bills Into Law in Florida
Florida continues its crusade against LGBTQIA+ people
Governor Ron DeSantis held a bill-signing ceremony on the morning of May 17, 2023, obviously intended to get national attention as he gears up for an expected run for the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America in 2024.
These bills all curb the rights of transgender, non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming Floridians and prohibit the teaching of LGBTQIA+ topics. He claims the bills keep Florida schools “focused on education, not indoctrination”. However, as they prohibit lessons about inclusivity in favor of Evangelical values, they do the exact opposite.
House Bill 1069 (HB 1609) effectively expands the bill which is commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The original bill, House Bill 1557 (HB 1557), restricted education about gender identity and sexuality up to fourth grade.
HB 1609 extends the restriction up to eighth grade. Beginning in ninth grade, sexual classes are required to teach abstinence, which entails refraining from sexual intercourse until marriage. Lessons about heterosexual marriage between one man and one woman are encouraged.
Policies regarding using the preferred pronoun for gender-non-confirming students can not be implemented until the ninth grade. Teachers can knowingly refer to their students with the wrong pronoun without repercussions.
Senate Bill 254 (SB 254) bans gender-affirming care for people younger than eighteen. Contrary to guidance from the American Medical Association, gender-affirming care for children is considered child abuse in Florida. Children who receive gender-affirming care can be taken from their parents and placed into state custody.
Adult patients are also heavily restricted as they can’t utilize telehealth and must receive gender-affirming care in person. The provider of gender-affirming care must be a doctor, not a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant.
The bill is also intended to scare doctors, as recipients of gender-affirming can more easily sue their providers.
House Bill 1423 (HB 1423) is the second state law, following Tennessee, to prohibit the exhibition of drag shows for minors. It is an effect of the far-right conspiracy, based on a decades-old lie about LGBTQIA+ people being sexual predators that is solely meant to demonize. The new version is that LGBTQIA+ people “groom” children to be sexually molested, which is, of course, complete right-ring garbage.
According to Advocate, the poorly worded text in the bill about “live adult performances” extends to any performance with sexually suggestive content, even extended to performers with even prosthetic breasts.
It doesn’t actually cover sexual content, as Florida law already prohibits minors from going to strip shows with actual nudity.
House Bill 1521 (HB 1521) prohibits the use of restrooms or lockers that are not consistent with a person’s sex at birth. It is effectively a return to the awful bathroom bills enacted in the Southern United States years ago that ended up with actual men going into bathrooms to assault any women they felt did not conform to social norms.
These bills make Florida the most restrictive, and authoritarian, state towards LGBTQIA+ people in the United States.