FILE – Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an annual Basque Fry at the Corley Ranch in Gardnerville, Nev., Saturday, June 17, 2023. The mother of a transgender girl sobbed in federal court Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, 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 affect. (AP Photo/Andy Barron, File)
A federal judge hearing achallenge to a transgender health care ban for minorsand restrictions for adults noted Thursday that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly spread false information about doctors mutilating children’s genitals even though there’s been no such documented cases.
The law was sold as defending children from mutilation when it is actually about preventing trans children from getting health care, Judge Robert Hinkle said to Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer for the state.
“When I’m analyzing the governor’s motivation, what should I make of these statements?” Hinkle asked. “This seems to be more than just hyperbole.”
Hinkle said he will rule sometime in the new year on whether the Legislature, the Department of Health and presidential candidate DeSantis deliberately targeted transgender people through the new law. He raised some skepticism about the state’s motivation as lawyers gave their closing arguments.
Jazil said the motivation behind the law was simply public safety in an area that needs more oversight and can have permanent consequences.
“It’s about treating a medical condition; it’s not about targeting transgender individuals,” Jazil said.
Jazil added that if the state was targeting transgender people, it could have banned all treatment for adults and children. Hinkle quickly replied that Jazil would have trouble defending such a law.
At least 22 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and many of those states face lawsuits. Courts have issued mixed rulings, with the nation’s first law, in Arkansas,struck down by a federal judgewho said the ban on care violated the due process rights of transgender youth and their families.
Enforcement is blocked in two states besides Florida, and enforcement is currently allowed in or set to go into effect soon in seven other states.
Thomas Redburn, a lawyer representing trans adults and the families of trans children, said DeSantis and the Legislature have shown a pattern of targeting transgender people. He listed other recent laws that affect the community, including restrictions on pronoun use in schools, the teaching of gender identification in schools, restrictions on public bathrooms and the prohibition of trans girls from playing girls sports.
Read the full article. Hinkle first appeared here in 2021 when he blocked Florida’s law that sought to prevent social media platforms from banning users for hate speech.
A federal judge says Florida Gov. DeSantis repeatedly spread false information while advocating for a transgender health care ban for minors law in his state. https://t.co/SEEpu8rmxR
So he wants to pass a law to protect children against genital mutilation that doesn’t exist and even if there was genital cutting it would be done on a person old enough to ask for it. Yet countless thousands of boys in the state of Florida have part of their genitals cut off without their consent every year and no one has even considered a law protecting males from involuntary genital cutting. I’m all for anyone doing anything they want to their own genitals when they’re old enough to make the decision themselves but 100% against anyone having anything unnecessarily cut from their body without their consent.
Circumcision performed on a male before he’s old enough to understand and consent to the procedure is involuntary genital mutilation, plain and simple.
The Genital Autonomy Legal Defense and Education Fund (www.galdef.org/equal-protec… has a strategy to remedy the fact that over 1.25 million baby boys in the U.S. each year are subjected to medically unnecessary genital cutting with no legal protection of their bodily integrity or eventual autonomy. Subscribe to GALDEF’s newsletter at their homepage and help them build their war chest to launch an equal protection lawsuit.
The practice started in Egypt millennia before the Israelites were a people. They adopted circumcision from them, in the same way they adopted monotheism from the Babylonians.
Not quite. Christianity did away with the Jewish requirement for male circumcision at the Council of Jerusalem or Apostolic Council, circa, 48-50 CE. It was the fear of masturbation which sparked its resurrection in the U.S. in the early 1870s.
Hinkle said he will rule sometime in the new year on whether the Legislature, the Department of Health and presidential candidate DeSantis deliberately targeted transgender people through the new law.
For those wondering, Robert Hinkle is a judge put on the courts under Bill Clinton and is a longtime LGBT ally. But both sides are the same right? I’m sure someone like this would totally have been put on the courts under Trump or George W or a Cruz etc. Oh wait…
DeSantis is a laughing stock at this point in time. The stuff of SNL. Even if Trump were to disappear, there’s no way in hell that the Republicans would nominate DeSantis as their 2024 candidate.
Besides being a total asshole, he is SO weird and awkward. We need to get rid of him and his government in Floriduh as well.
I’m just chilling with my long time best friend (60 years) in Delray Beach, having a tasty Knob Creek 9 on the rocks. Gonna get gummied soon. Nice plans for the Christmas weekend here. Wishing your and your hubby a wonderful holiday weekend!! Cheers!!
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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