A federal judge says that DeSantis was spreading lies when he called gender-affirming care “mutilation.”
This year has been all downhill for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His presidential aspirations are going up in smoke thanks to his complete lack of charisma and general campaign incompetence. His losing war against Disney is costing Florida taxpayers millions of dollars. Now a federal court all but called DeSantis a liar for the way he justified his ban on medical care for trans youth.
DeSantis repeatedly claimed that the law was necessary to prevent youth from being “mutilated.” In just one example, he went after one reporter who questioned him about it when he signed the bill last May.
“And when you talk to people and I know, like people in your industry will dress it up with a euphemism, and they’ll say it’s health care to cut off the private parts of a 14 or 15 year old,” DeSantis said. “That is not health care. That is mutilation.”
Tell that to U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle.
This is the lie that is being told. No reputable doctor is doing this. You are right, a teenager can’t reliably make those sorts of decisions.
The optimal treatment is a combination. They give drugs that delay puberty, combined with intensive mental health care.
The drugs are because reversing the effects of puberty is hard and invasive. By delaying puberty, they can sidestep a lot of these issues. If the patient decides they were wrong, they can stop the drugs, and puberty will kick in normally.
The mental health care is to help them get a handle on what is actually wrong. It filters out those with other mental health issues, that could be helped better in other ways. It also allows those who want to go through with it to firm up their understanding of what it will entail, and what they need to do prior.
If, after all this, they still want to transition, they can start the process. They are at least now aware of what it will entail, and don’t have the baggage of their body lurching in the opposite direction to their mind.
Yeah, for sure. I’m definitely not against hormones and mental health treatment. It’s just weird that “children shouldn’t be able to just get permanent, life altering surgery,” is a bad take around here.
It’s an uninformed take because these bans are preventing teens and young adults from accessing blockers and hormones.
I never said I supported the laws blocking access to blockers and hormones. You’re the one who read more into my comment than what was there.
You need to clarify your point then, keeping in mind that you are in a thread about the state of Florida blocking access to puberty blockers and hormones.
No, you need to not make assumptions. The comment I was responding to was discussing circumcision, and had nothing to do with blockers or hormones. I intentionally only brought up surgery.
Anything else was your assumption.
Alex, what is “context”?
It’s a dog whistle, from the right wing.
They need to rile up their base. They used to do this with abortion, but they accidentally caught that particular car. They’ve apparently decided trans people will be their new whipping boy.
They are using the same playbook as with abortion, namely false equivalences. They say they are against genital mutilated of children. When it comes to laws however, they go after the very existence of trans people.
This is why people are reacting so strongly.
Do consider this doesn’t actually happen - but this hypothetical point is often repeated and signal-boosted above the bad things that actually do happen to trans kids, and people who simply don’t want us to exist fully believe it’s real, discuss it as our agenda, and even threaten institutions and doctors who may or may not actually provide gender affirming care.
It’s a bad take, because it’s not what is being argued, and it is heavily insinuated that the only reason such an insane thing is being argued against is because someone is arguing for it.