The mother of a transgender girl cried in federal court on Wednesday as she thought about having to leave her Navy officer husband to get medical care for her 12-year-old daughter if Florida’s law against gender dysphoria treatments for kids goes into effect.
The woman, who gave her name as Jane Doe to protect her child’s privacy, said that her daughter went from being anxious and upset to a successful, happy straight-A student after being allowed to live as a girl about eight years ago. She and her husband made this choice after several visits to their family doctor.
But the girl is afraid that she will start to change into a boy as she gets older. The mother said that if she doesn’t get help, she and her family will be destroyed.
The mom said, sobbing, “I will go to the end of the Earth to get my daughter the help she needs. “I wonder if our family will be destroyed. Will we have to move away from my hubby to live somewhere else?
The evidence was given in support of a Florida law that forbade medical treatment for transgender youth, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who has campaigned on the topic while running for president, lobbied for this bill. Additionally, the law restricts adult trans care.
Attorney Thomas Redburn, who represents trans individuals and the families of trans children, stated, “This all started with the governor.”
He pointed up other laws that DeSantis has pushed for to show that the governor and Republican lawmakers have been against transgender rights. For example, he said that schools shouldn’t allow people to use pronouns that don’t match their sex at birth.
But Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer for the state, said that the law is there to keep people safe. He said that someone was given hormones after a 30-minute telehealth visit in one case. He also said that some transgender people who chose to detransition have since learned that their care did permanent harm.
“This case isn’t about too much regulation; it’s about not enough regulation,” Jazil said.
Judge Robert Hinkle has briefly stopped the law from being enforced until the trial is over. Also in this case challenges to limits on transgender care for adults, which can happen while the trial is going on.
At least 22 states have passed rules that limit or ban medical care that confirms a transgender person’s gender, and many of those states are being sued.
Different courts have made different decisions. For example, the first law in the country, in Arkansas, was thrown out by a federal judge who said that the ban on care violated the due process rights of transgender kids and their families.
Other than Florida, enforcement is not allowed in two states. In seven other states, enforcement is either already allowed or will be soon.
At the beginning of his case, Redburn said that the Florida rule was unconstitutional because it targets a certain group of people. It was made clear that people who are not transgender can get the same treatments, like estrogen and testosterone, without having to go through a lot of trouble.
She said, “The state of Florida has decided that people should not be transgender.” “Les transgender people there are, the better.”
The girl’s mother said that when her daughter was 3 years old and started liking girls’ clothes and toys, their family’s doctor told them she had gender dysphoria.
She talked about how her daughter screamed and tore off her clothes in the car seat on the way to daycare. Her husband and she have driven four hours round-trip to the University of Florida so that their daughter can see doctors.
In her opening remarks, Jazil talked about risks like infertility. The woman replied, “The benefits for my daughter far outweigh the possible risks.” Her biggest fear is “becoming a boy,” as she puts it. I told her that wouldn’t happen.
As an example, Jazil told the girl’s mother that her daughter Jane Doe’s health records at the University of Florida did not have a height and weight listed.
Redburn said that gender dysphoria is real and not something that people choose because of the internet and social media, which is what some lawmakers have said.
It was brought up that the Republican lawmakers who pushed for the law called transgender people evil and a cult. He said that the person who was pushing the bill said that God doesn’t make mistakes.
On Wednesday, three teachers also filed a lawsuit against the rule that limits the use of pronouns in schools, saying that transgender and nonbinary teachers are not allowed to be themselves.
It’s funny that Jazil always called Jane Doe’s daughter “her” and “she,” even though the state requires everyone in schools to use names that match birth sex.
The healthcare study for trans people is set to last five days.