Gov. DeSantis Says He Would Sign Bill Prohibiting Minors From Gender Reassignment Surgeries
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis stated that he would approve legislation prohibiting minors from undergoing transgender surgery.
DeSantis was asked in an interview with the Daily Caller whether he favors a ban on minors undergoing gender reassignment surgery.
“I’m very much opposed to chemical castration of minors, I honestly didn’t know this existed until a few years ago,” said Florida’s Republican governor. “That would be something I would sign for sure.”
Florida senators proposed the Youth Gender and Sexual Identity Act in February, proposing criminal penalties for healthcare professionals who practice gender reassignment surgery or medical treatments on minors. On April 30, the House bill died in a Professions & Public Health Subcommittee.
On June 1, DeSantis signed SB 1028 into law, which prohibits biological men-transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports in order to maintain “fair opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their strength, skills, and abilities in athletic competition.”
“The bill that we’re doing today will ensure fairness for women athletes for years to come in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said as the bill was signed into law.
“It says that athletic teams or sports that are designated for females are open to females. And we’re going to go based off biology,” DeSantis added.
“It’s discrimination against our women athletes to force them to participate against male athletes. It needs to be a level playing field, and it needs to be fair, and it should all be based on biology, not based on ideology.” DeSantis said.
“Well, look, it’s discrimination against our women athletes to force them to participate against male athletes,” he said this week. “Selina (Soule) from Connecticut came in; she missed New England regionals for track by two places, and both of the people who beat her were biological males. And so if she had had a level playing field, she would have not only advanced to regionals, she would have won that track meet.”
In 2019, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal discrimination lawsuit with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of three female high school athletes, including Soule, who were defeated by biological males in sports tournaments.
Despite the warnings from “woke” groups like the NCAA, DeSantis signed the law.
“I remember the NCAA put out a statement saying any state that enacts this, we’re not going to hold events there. So I called the speaker of the House in Florida and I said, ‘Did you hear what they said?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘We definitely got to get this done.’ You can’t be cowed by these organizations, or particularly by woke corporations, from doing the right thing.” DeSantis stated.
“We have to protect our girls. It is discriminatory to force them to compete against biological males. If the price of having a tournament is that I have to deny equal opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young girl and women athletes throughout Florida, I am much more willing to stand with the girls. And to hell with these events.” he continued.
“If corporations want to come in and try to bully us around, they are going to go nowhere. It’s going to be like hitting their head against a brick wall,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also slammed Republican governors who have been hesitant to approve similar bills.
“I think it’s just corporate pressure; I think the corporations have gotten very woke; they tend to genuflect before whatever the most recent left-wing cause is, they just don’t like getting the blowback; they don’t want to be the subject of a social media mob or things like that.” DeSantis said to the Daily Caller Tuesday.
“And so I think that they have taken that posture, but you can’t let them — like some woke corporation, you’re going to turn over the reins of government to them and let them set the policy? That ain’t happening in Florida, and so we’re not gonna be deterred by that,” DeSantis shared.
