Letters: Emergency rule allows gender-affirming care for trans teens and adults in Florida

Last week the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved an emergency measure to allow transgender children and adults to receive life-saving gender-affirming care. This decision comes in the face of an all-out assault on trans-Floridians.

Lawmakers have passed over 80 anti-trans bills nationwide this year, unprecedented in both volume and their cruelty. Florida is responsible for six of these, with CB/SB 254 banning access to gender-affirming care for trans-youth.

But the bill also poses barriers for adults accessing care, who now must sign a consent form approved by the state medical board — which does not yet actually exist — and can no longer use nurse practitioners or telemedicine, cutting off an estimated 80% of gender-affirming care for adults. Despite years of access to these resources, trans-adults are now being stripped of control over their own health care.

Gender-affirming care saved my life. While medical experts have a clear consensus, trans people are scrutinized when accessing healthcare, while cisgender people have no such restrictions related to plastic surgery or hormone therapy.

It’s been scary to be trans and queer this Pride Month, even leading organizers of Florida Pride to make the difficult choice to cancel this month’s events. But following the temporary injunction against the bill, we remain hopeful and committed to the fight for a complete reversal of the ban, alongside organizations such as State Voices Florida and Equality Florida.

The trans-community is being targeted by politicians seeking money and power. Opinion polls show the public rejects these anti-trans attacks, and I’m thankful that we’re winning these cases in Florida courts.

Alex Romero, Jacksonville

DeSantis’ rhetoric not supported by record

Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign strategy — his “anti-woke” message — is directed toward a fractional faction in the Republican Party. He proposes nationalizing policies like banning books; imposing his restrictive personal values on individuals and families; and punishing officials or businesses that stand up to him. Despite the failure of these executive and legislative actions to pass judicial review, he continues to force his version of America on the rest of us.

Recently, DeSantis supported a proposal to abolish the IRS, bragging that Florida does fine without income taxes; why should the federal government require them? In addition to the obvious difference of the need to fund defense, diplomacy, health, research and associated large infrastructures, his claim falls short of reality.

Florida’s government depends on sales tax collections. These taxes hurt poor and middle-class residents who spend most of their paychecks for basic needs. The extra 7-8% sales tax is a big bite. But this revenue stream actually provides only mediocre support for state needs. Our funding for education, health, infrastructure and law enforcement generally ranks around average.

Inadequate funding has consequences. As an example, failing to address beach erosion and seaweed contamination affects tourism, directly undermining our quality of life and financial success.

Sales tax from tourists enhances our coffers and blunts the burden on locals. Yet, DeSantis ignores that which doesn’t fit his personal agenda. His ineffectiveness in protecting our beaches and his feud with Disney will weaken that revenue stream.

Stephen Entman, Jacksonville

Jags’ stadium proposal unacceptable

Three years to build a new stadium (or renovate the current one) is extreme, and making fans travel to other cities for two or three years is unreasonable. Not to mention the $2 billion cost.

Why do so many buildings and other venues seem to be declared “old” after about 30 years? The Jacksonville Landing, for instance; built 32 years ago and it was demolished. It was billed as a festival marketplace where so many popular events were held on a regular basis until it was allowed to slide into disrepair.

It was 126,000 square feet and built for $37.5 million, or about $100 million in today’s economy. As for the time it takes to rebuild or renovate: Take a lesson from the TPC Clubhouse that was totally rebuilt in 2007 and took about a year — 77,000 square feet at a cost of $32 million — about $46 million today.

So why does the Jaguars' proposal include 62,000 seats for fans (expandable to 71,500 for college games) when the average 2022 attendance was reported at 66,439? Obligating over $800 million of taxpayer money for this venue appears to be totally out of line in today’s economy, and making fans travel for two to three years is just not acceptable.

Lina Ingraham, Jacksonville

What’s the real cost of lost Disney jobs?

Disney’s decision to forgo 2,000 new jobs in Florida (and potentially another 13,000 jobs in the future) will be devastating to the state. However, this does not represent the actual job loss for Florida. According to the Economic Policy Institute, for every job created in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry, it creates an additional 3.8 indirect jobs. This means that Florida is losing 2,000 direct Disney jobs and 7,600 indirect jobs; should Disney decide to forgo the other 13,000 jobs, the state could lose an additional 49,400 jobs.

In total, if industry averages hold, Florida potentially would lose 72,200 jobs. These jobs could easily be created instead in California or another state because of one man’s bullying practices. Gov. Ron DeSantis should collaborate with all parties — including the state’s largest employer — to enable potential prosperity. When more than 70,000 jobs are at risk, and the governor wants to bully this company, he has failed in his responsibility to the state and its citizens.

It appears that he will establish Florida as a beacon of strategic ideology, at the risk of long-term job opportunities for the citizens of Florida. His actions are appalling and negligent, with such high-stakes economic bullying.

Denise Novotny, Amelia Island

Panties at the Florida House – really?

The June 27 article titled "Case for, against the arrest of state House protestors" tells me (as a registered Democrat) all I need to know about why the party is trivialized in Florida.

First, if throwing panties at people is all you can come up with as your protest, you've sort of lost the debate from the start. Second, to defend any disruption of government business as harmless free speech is (at best) hypocritical — like Republicans calling those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 sightseeing tourists. If you're going to protest, and your protest is going to be disruptive (whether it's throwing underwear or blocking traffic), at least have the courage of your convictions. Accept the consequences instead of whining about your right to be disruptive.

Other people also have rights: The right not to have traffic blocked by climate protesters with state-of-the-art, environmentally repugnant iPhones or have panties thrown on their heads. Finally, Nikki Fried would serve the Democratic Party much better if she went back to the reefer business, where she might actually do some good. As the party’s state leader, she's emblematic of its increasingly cartoonish fatuousness.

We deserve better (I hope).

Mike Disch, Neptune Beach

Appreciation for AARP

The information shared by AARP State Director Jeff Johnson on June 25 in regard to the Social Security call centers is very disturbing. We are very glad AARP is monitoring and addressing the call center concerns.

I have been on Social Security for years and thank goodness I have only had a few problems that were cleared up online via secure email and secure chat.

When I first applied for Social Security years ago, I read up on the process on the national AARP website. It strongly suggested setting up an online Social Security account; now I understand it is required. At that time AARP predicted unusually long call wait times due to more and more baby boomers becoming eligible. AARP said that most of the answers to our questions could be handled via secure text chats with a representative or secure emails. You could even make an appointment should it be necessary to appear in person at your local office.

Thanks again to AARP for their insight and continued monitoring of the Social Security Administration for us.

Bill Kelly, Jacksonville

One simple solution to abortion issue

The Congress of the United States, and our country as a whole, will probably debate the abortion issue until hell freezes over, because good men and women on both sides of the argument are correct. In other words, there is no one right answer for everyone.

But there is a conceptually simple solution: If you do not want or cannot afford to have a child just yet — take or use a contraceptive.

Contraceptives work, they are safe and (for the most part) inexpensive. They have also proven their effectiveness over time: Condoms, for example, have been around in one form or another since about the 1500s and in their current version since the mid-19th century.

Using contraceptives seems like a no-brainer for (non-Catholic) men and women. This is not rocket science, but reminders are evidently needed. Yet there is so little commentary provided regarding this important and workable alternative to pro-life or pro-choice.

Sam Heffner, Ponte Vedra Beach

It worked in WWII

During World War II there was a workforce shortage to harvest crops, since so many young men had been inducted into the military. Many high schools and colleges agreed to help farmers recruit kids to fill the void. In fact, I helped pick apples in an upstate New York orchard.

With high unemployment among teens and young adults, our cities and schools have an opportunity to address both immigration and jobs. Unfortunately, there are probably too many bureaucratic rules and regulations to implement such a service.

Dan Cook, Jacksonville

Trash on Jax roadways

Kudos to Nancy Urban who wrote a letter that was published on June 25 regarding the litter on the Buckman Bridge. I've often wondered the same thing.

It's just not that one bridge though — it's every bridge and roadway in Jacksonville. We can and must do better. Why not get some of the Jaguars players in a commercial, saying something like, “Don't Trash Jax” or “Secure Your Load” and other anti-litter messages?

This should not be hard. Let's do it, Jacksonville.

Margo Easter, Jacksonville

Time will tell on new gun law

The new Florida gun law that goes into effect today and which allows people with no firearms training to utilize concealed carry, will be an excellent opportunity to measure the effects of political policy on public safety. All the state must do is compare the number of handgun-related homicides in the second part of the year to the first.

That will determine whether it was a bad idea, a good idea or a wash.

Ralph Harding, Orange Park

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Member of transgender community thankful for medical board's decision