Four new Florida laws target transgender, broader LGBTQ community. Here's what they do

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed four bills Wednesday that directly or indirectly target transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community.

Republican supporters say the new laws restrict gender-affirming care for kids and adults, require people to use bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth, ban kids from attending “adult live performances," block the use of preferred pronouns and expand Florida's Parents Right law, derided by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" law.

LGBTQ advocates, however, called the bill-signings a "slate of hate."

"DeSantis has just signed into law the largest slate of anti-LGBTQ bills in one legislative session in the state’s history,” said Joe Saunders, Senior Political Director of Equality Florida. “This is an all out attack on freedom. Free states don’t strip parents of the right to make healthcare decisions for their children. Free states don’t ban books, censor curriculum, or muzzle free speech."

The four bills were among over a dozen that Republican lawmakers filed this session tackling transgender and LGBTQ issues.

“We are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy, and kids should have an upbringing that reflects that,” DeSantis said at a bill signing at the Coastal Community Church at Lighthouse Point.

DeSantis signed SB 1580 into law last week, which allows Florida health care providers and payors to refuse services based on their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.

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Here’s a look at the bills:

Florida bans gender-affirming care among minors and restricts care among adults (SB 254)

Florida SB 254 restricts gender-affirming care for transgender adults and children, and was condemned as Florida’s “abduction” bill by opponents who claim it allows children to be “legally kidnapped” by disagreeing parents.

Senator Clay Yarborough, who introduced the bill, said the bill is meant to protect children from “drastic life-altering gender dysphoria therapies and surgeries” that he said are being prescribed for children. He argued that both parents should have a say in whether their child receives gender-affirming care.

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Gender-affirming care for youth has support from nearly every mainstream medical organization, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, the Endocrine Society and the American Psychiatric Association. Politifact has determined that while the state cannot kidnap children, the law can affect custody disputes.

LGBTQ advocacy groups said they plan to ask a judge to block the law as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Board of Medicine ban. Advocates for three Florida families will be in court on Friday to argue their children urgently need medical care as the case continues.

The families are represented by Southern Legal Counsel, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign, which issued the following statement: "This is a state of emergency for Florida parents, who are already being forced to watch their kids suffer rather than get them the safe and effective healthcare they need and that will allow them to thrive."

What Florida SB 254 does:

• Florida courts can receive temporary emergency jurisdiction — The bill would grant Florida courts temporary emergency jurisdiction if a child present in the state has been subjected to or “threatened” with sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.

• Parents can apply for a warrant to receive physical custody of a child — Parents can file a petition seeking enforcement of a child custody determination. If a parent believes that their child is likely to “imminently suffer serious physical harm or removal of the state,” they can file a verified issuance of a warrant to take physical custody of the child.

• State funds are prohibited from being used for gender-affirming care — Another section of the bill prohibits any “governmental entity” from expending state funds for sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.

• People under 18 can no longer receive gender-affirming care unless they qualify for an exception — Section 5 of the bill prohibits sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures for patients younger than 18 years old. The Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine will have 60 days to adopt emergency rules pertaining to standards of practice where a minor could continue to be treated with a prescription consistent with those defined in Florida Statute 456.001.

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Florida bans kids from “adult live performances”

Florida SB 1438 prohibits bars children from attending “adult live performances."

Supporters say the law bans children from attending a narrow subset of live performances that aren't age-appropriate. Critics worry that its vague language will be used to target family-friendly drag shows and Pride events. Some Pride events have already been canceled.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Clay Yarborough last month, does not specify events like drag shows or Pride parades; instead, it focuses on defining content related to sexuality that might be included in such events or “any show, exhibition, or other presentation that ... depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, specific sexual activities, … lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”

What Florida SB 1438 does:

• Governmental entities barred from issuing public permits to anyone that would violate the law — The bill blocks governmental entities such as any state, county, district, etc. from issuing a permit or otherwise authorizing someone to hold a performance that may violate the new law.

• Businesses that admit kids to an “adult live performance” could face fines or have their license revoked or suspended — Violating the law could result in businesses paying fines up to $10,000 and having their license to conduct business revoked or suspended.

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Floridians must use bathrooms associated with their sex at assigned birth

Florida HB 1521 requires people to use bathrooms that line up with their sex assigned at birth.

Critics say that the new law could lead to transgender becoming targets of harassment and wondered how the law would be enforced.

What Florida HB 1521 does:

• People must use the restrooms and changing facilities that align with their sex assigned at birth — A provision of the bill defines “changing facilities” as a room in which two or more persons may be in a state of undress in the presence of others, such as dressing rooms, fitting rooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and showers.

Florida expands "Don't Say Gay" to include all grades

Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education Act, also called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has been expanded to now include fourth through 12th grades.

The Parental Rights in Education Act, HB 1557, was signed into law by DeSantis on March 28, 2022. It prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms. The bill originally only targeted kindergarten through third grade, and limited similar discussions is higher grades to what is “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

The National Education Association states that the bill required schools to create a complaint procedure that allowed parents to raise concerns they have about compliance with the law that the schools must internally resolve. Failure to do so would allow the parent to call on the Florida Department of Education to launch their own investigation, at the school’s expense, or sue in court to obtain an injunction, damages and attorneys’ fees.

Education Week, which has covered K-12 education news since 1981, points out that the bill puts teachers who violate the law at risk of losing their credentials.

What Florida HB 1557 does:

• The bill requires health education classes that touch on issues of human sexuality to teach "that biological males impregnate biological females ... that the female then gestates the offspring" and that "these reproductive roles are binary, stable and unchangeable" — effectively erasing the existence of transgender and non-binary identities from the curriculum.

• The bill also bars teachers from referring to students or their colleagues by a pronoun or title that doesn’t correspond to their sex assigned at birth. They also provide protections to students who don’t want to refer to a fellow student by their desired name or pronouns.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: New Florida laws target transgender care, bathrooms, drag shows, pronouns