Fascism 101: Whip your followers up into a state of fear, demonize a small minority unable to defend themselves, and then eliminate and/or kill them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/03/05/florida-bills-would-ban-gender-studies-transgender-pronouns-tenure-perks/Florida legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program.
The half-dozen bills, filed by a cast of GOP state representatives and senators, come shortly before the launch of Florida’s legislative session Tuesday. Other proposals in the mix include eliminating college majors in gender studies, nixing diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, strengthening parents’ ability to veto K-12 class materials and extending a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality — from third grade up to eighth grade.
The legislation has already drawn protest from Democratic politicians, education associations, free speech groups and LGBTQ advocates, who say the bills will restrict educators’ ability to instruct children honestly, harm transgender and nonbinary students and strip funding from public schools.
It shall be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution … that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait.
— Florida House Bill 1223
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2023-03-03/legislation-illegal-gender-affirming-care-transgender-youthsThe bills (HB 1421 and SB 254), filed by House Health & Human Services Chairman Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, and Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, are the latest in a series of moves by lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration aimed at transgender people.
The Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine last month moved forward with rules that would prevent doctors from providing such treatments to minors.
But the bills would go further by placing a prohibition in state law. The House version would require that doctors lose their licenses if they commit violations, while the Senate bill could lead to criminal charges for a person who "willfully or actively participates in a violation."
The House bill also would make changes including preventing health insurers and HMOs from providing coverage for treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery and would largely block people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates. Both bills would bar state agencies and local governments from spending money on such treatments.
The bills, which were filed as lawmakers prepare to start the annual legislative session Tuesday, will add fuel to debates that have repeatedly flared in Florida and numerous other Republican-controlled states about treatment for gender dysphoria. The federal government defines gender dysphoria clinically as “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.”
“Parents have the right to raise their children as they see fit, and government intervention should be a last resort," Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said in a prepared statement Friday. "Unfortunately, all too often we are hearing about treatments for gender dysphoria being administered to children, often very young children. That’s just wrong, and we need to step in and make sure it isn’t happening in our state.”
But the LGBTQ-advocacy group Equality Florida issued a news release about the House bill that said it would "strip families of their medical freedom, put government in control of insurance coverage decisions, and codify a ban on transgender people being legally recognized as themselves."
"Transgender people are neighbors, friends, family members," Nikole Parker, Equality Florida director of transgender equality, said in a prepared statement. "We exist and we matter. This bill to rip away lifesaving health care, shred insurance coverage and bar birth certificate access will cost lives."
Fine’s committee last month held a panel discussion that included doctors, researchers and other people opposed to gender-affirming care for transgender minors. At the time, Fine indicated he would file legislation on the issue. Massullo, meanwhile, is a dermatologist.
“I will tell you this. I say these panels are often a predicate for what’s to come. That’s exactly what today was. And I promise you, you will like the bill,” Fine said at the end of the Feb. 21 meeting.
Equality Florida described the speakers at the committee as a “sham panel.” It also accused DeSantis of using the issue “in his quest to build a right wing presidential resume.”
“This one-sided discussion, which relied on fringe speakers from social media and from outside of Florida and the U.S., does not change the broad scientific consensus from our nation’s leading medical associations — that gender-affirming care improves health outcomes and saves lives,” Parker said in a statement after the meeting.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/592722-anti-trans-bathroom-bill-filed-in-supermajority-gop-florida-senate/A bill filed Friday in the Florida Senate would assert legislative intent in bathrooms and locker rooms, restricting usage of single-sex facilities to genders assigned at birth.
SB 1674, called the “Safety in Private Spaces Act,” would mandate “exclusive use” of restrooms and changing facilities by gender. The legislation from Sen. Erin Grall, a Republican from Vero Beach, would ban people from “willfully entering” such a facility designated for “the opposite sex.” Violators of this law could face second-degree misdemeanor charges and fines of up to $10,000.
Grall’s bill posits that “females and males should be provided restrooms and changing facilities for their exclusive use in order to maintain public safety, decency, and decorum.” These include “changing facilities” in schools, jails and prisons, public shelters, and health care facilities ranging from optometrists to pharmacies.
The bill defines “female” and “male” by tying those terms to their respective “specific reproductive role.” The “female” is tasked with “producing eggs” and the “male” is tasked with “producing sperm.”
There are permissible exceptions in the bill. Chaperones for young children are exempt, as are police officers and emergency workers doing their jobs. If the same sex restroom is out of order, then someone can provisionally use the opposite sex facility as long as no one is in there.
Schools are to punish violators in their code of student conduct, and jails and domestic violence shelters must strictly segregate the genders, except for family units in the latter case.
The bill holds that each provision is severable, meaning that a successful legal challenge of one part of the bill would not invalidate the law overall.
There is no House companion for this yet, but should it become law, it goes into effect July 1.
Grall’s bill is the latest in a series of recent bills from the Florida Senate that serve as a socially conservative rebuke to the LGBTQ+ community, as the Republican supermajority flexes its muscles. Three of those bills were filed earlier this week by Sen. Clay Yarborough, including legislation to claim territory in classrooms, performance venues and health care facilities in the new front involving children and gender identity.
The bills are:
— SB 1438, which appears to have been inspired by the annual tour of “A Drag Queen Christmas,” a show where children were photographed during the holiday season. The legislation would revoke the license of any public lodging that admits a child to an adult live performance. Republican Rep. Randy Fine filed identical legislation in the House.
— SB 1320 which would prohibit people from using preferred pronouns that do not correspond with the gender identity assigned to the person at birth. It would also ban classroom instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity until the ninth grade. Two related bills are moving in the House. HB 1069 defines “sex” and is moving through committees. HB 1223, concerned with pronouns, sexual orientation and gender identity instruction, was filed Tuesday.
— SB 254 would give the state temporary emergency jurisdiction over children if they are at risk or are getting what some call “gender-affirming care” and others call “sex-reassignment” prescriptions or procedures. Also, it would require health care providers to say they don’t provide the treatment to children younger than 18 or face losing their license.
Fine and Republican Rep. Ralph Massullo filed similar legislation (HB 1421) in the House.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2023 06:32PM by anybody.