Florida's Gender Affirming Care Ban To Go Into Effect Because of Two Judges
Once again, an extremely small number of people with no skin in the game make decisions negatively impacting countless people.
by Mira Lazine
Daily Femail is Assigned Media’s newest column, offering real opinions delivered with a satirical tone to address last week’s biggest news stories. Written by Mira Lazine, the column aims to humorously mock right-wing tabloids while also providing quality reporting every Tuesday.
Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a permanent injunction - a type of court order mandating a specific action, in this case restricting legal action - on Florida’s Senate Bill 254, allowing the DeSantis-backed gender affirming care ban to go into law.
The decision was voted 2-1, with both judges who voted in favor of reinstating the ban, Britt Grant and Robert Luck, having been appointed by Donald “Dollar Store Fascist” Trump. Charles Wilson was the sole dissenter, having been appointed by former President Bill “Ruiner of Monica Lewinsky’s Life” Clinton.
The effects of this decision are sweeping, as this puts a sudden ban on gender affirming care for minors across the state. When SB 254 was blocked in most provisions, minors were only restricted from receiving incredibly rare gender affirming surgeries, but now the ban extends to hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers.
Additionally, the allowance of all SB 254 provisions to go into law means that additional restrictions are placed on accessing adult care. Most notably, only those with a doctorate - that is, an MD or a DO, can provide such care, with any type of nurse that has prescribing authority being restricted from providing such care. Additionally, a restriction that carries over is that telehealth appointments aren’t allowed for signing consent forms, restricting patients who rely on remote access to their appointments.
This decision only directly concerns the case Doe v. Ladapo - both Dekker v. Weida’s and Claire et al v. Florida Dep't of Mgmt Servs. et al’s rulings remain in place, at least for now. According to NPR affiliate WUSF, the Floridian government has already appealed Dekker v. Weida, and Daily Femail has received a tip from an anonymous source that Claire et al is currently being appealed as well. It is unclear whether Florida’s bloodlust for trans people extends to Court of Appeals Judges, but fans of legislative battles for people’s human rights will be among the first to find out.
For those who have been following Florida’s developments through Assigned Media for the past few months, this may not come as a shock - Florida’s own failed Presidential candidate Ron “Meatball Ron” DeSantis has predicted that the 11th Circuit would come around in his favor.This may also have been predictable to those who follow courts beyond the United States Supreme “We decide all the laws, actually, and will be here literally forever” Court, as Trump appointed record numbers of judges to courts across the nation. This may have gotten glossed over in the time since, especially as President Joe “It’s finally Joever” Biden has appointed a new record number of judges, including LGBTQ+ judges.
Nevertheless, Trump’s many appointees have made huge impacts across the nation. A Trump appointee worked alongside a Ronald “Gender neutral bathroom” Reagan appointee in Indiana earlier this year to institute a gender affirming care ban (ironically, after a Trump-appointed judge vetoed parts of the ban, but not the entire thing). A separate judge in Texas blocked a Department of Education Title IX rule arguing that trans women playing on women’s sports teams is a bad thing, while dozens of separate judges tracked by Alliance for Justice have been revealed to have opposed trans rights and, in some cases, marriage equality.
Daily Femail’s readers need not worry about Trump’s stances on LGBTQ+ rights, however, because Republicans are now claiming that he is the most gay-friendly President that America has ever had. It is unclear as to whether they state this to garner more votes, as there is no evidence that someone would ever go on the internet to tell lies.
The Doe v. Ladapo ruling did not come without pushback. Wilson wrote a scathing dissent of his fellow judges, pleading with them to defer to the ruling of the lower district court judge and Clinton-appointee Robert Hinkle,
“On balance, evidence in the record demonstrates that the plaintiffs and class-members would suffer if the stay were granted—with holding access to gender-affirming care would cause needless suffering. In contrast, denying the stay would support a ruling grounded in the public interest,” Wilson writes.
“This matter is a medical issue, where patients are best left to make decisions alongside health professionals, with access to complete, unbiased information, as needed,” Wilson continues. “The district court appropriately credited arguments on both sides of the case, and found that on balance, the plaintiffs should prevail. We should defer to such thoughtful decision making.”
But unfortunately, this fight wasn’t enough, as two people alone get to decide the fate of thousands of people’s medical care and lives solely on the basis of their ideological leanings. Daily Femail applauds the true democracy we live in.
Astute defenders of the courts likely argue that Florida’s democratic system decided to ban gender affirming care, thereby that should be defended no matter what. These defenders may need to take a brief look at Florida’s current gerrymandering legal battles to get a good sense of whether Florida is truly representing its people.
Daily Femail also encourages readers interested in learning more about gerrymandering to defer to Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project for information on their state’s gerrymandering laws and what can be done to oppose the process. If there is one thing that can be found to have caused Republican policies across the country, it’s bizarrely divided electoral maps designed to give them an edge. Only time will tell as to whether Americans will live in a country that is truly democratic, if it will ever happen at all.
Mira Lazine is a freelance journalist covering transgender issues, politics, and science. She can be found on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky, @MiraLazine