This is how Ron DeSantis is making it illegal to be transgendered

On May 17th, Governor Ron DeSantis signed several bills into law in Florida that will have significant and far-reaching consequences for members of the state's transgendered community. 

The bills not only ban gender-affirming care for minors but also restrict pronoun use in schools, target drag shows, and force people in the state to use certain bathrooms. 

The Associated Press reported that the signing ceremony for Florida’s new legislation took place in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Tampa’s Cambridge Christian School. 

DeSantis’ signing ceremony felt like a campaign event according to the Associated Press, which said stood in stark contrast to his private signing of the state’s abortion and gun rights bills. 

“It’s kind of sad that we even have some of these discussions,” the governor explained to a cheering crowd as he spoke from a podium with a sign that read “Let Kids Be Kids.”

“We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something? They’re having third-graders declare pronouns? We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida,” DeSantis added. 

Democrats in Florida attempted to stop the bills but the statehouse is currently held by a supermajority of Republican lawmakers, which is how the new legislation was approved. 

According to CBS News, Senate Bill 254 prohibits gender-affirming surgery for minors in Florida while also restricting their access to gender medications like puberty blockers. 

There are also grave consequences for any doctors or medical professionals in the state if they are found violating any of the new restrictions on gender-affirming care in Florida. 

Physicians and other healthcare professionals who provide gender-affirming medication or perform gender surgeries can be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida. 

The legislation also gives state officials the power to obtain a warrant and remove a child from the care of their parents if that child has been “subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures,” according to a CBS News report on the new laws. 

Democratic State Senator Shevrin Jones is one of Florida’s few gay representatives and he blasted his Republican opponents for the draconian measures the new laws imposed. 

“They have cloaked themselves in being the party of less government and parental rights, and what we’re seeing now is the total opposite,” the state senator explained to the Associated Press. 

“Every other parent has the right to raise their child the way that they want to as long as your child is not gay, trans, bisexual. That’s freedom for some parents, but not for all parents,” Jones added. "That's freedom for some parents but not for all parents."

DeSantis also signed into law an expansion of the state’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which restricted the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida’s school system to third grade in 2022 and was extended to the eighth grade as per CBS News.

Teachers in Florida also cannot be compelled to use a coworker's or student's preferred pronoun if it's contrary to their birth sex after House Bill 1069—a bill codifying that codified gender in Florida as either male or female—was signed into law by DeSantis. 

Other bills signed by the governor banned trans people from accessing the bathrooms, locker rooms, and public facilities that match their gender and also restricted minors from attending drag events according to CBS News.

Such harsh measures were condemned by Human Rights Campaign President Kelly Robinson who attacked DeSantis and Florida Republicans for assaulting the freedoms of some of Florida’s most vulnerable residents. 

“Ron DeSantis and extremist legislators in Florida are some of the most anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in America,” Robinson said in a statement. “From doctors’ offices to classrooms, they show no shame in assaulting the freedoms of those different from them.”