Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday highlighted the absurdity of the medical establishment as it pushes sex changes for minors, deeming this type of ideology “very, very dangerous.”
“And at the end of the day, if you look what’s happening in our society, you see institutions being infected with ideology at the expense of facts and reality,” DeSantis said on Tuesday after announcing initiatives his administration plans to prioritize in the next legislative session, focusing on recruiting teachers through various means — not simply recruiting individuals who have been subjected to education degrees, which he said have been “taken over by ideology.”
There is a very dangerous trend, the governor explained, of institutions and so-called experts pushing radical ideologies as fact, such as promoting sex changes for minors as the latest example.
“We’re fighting this thing with the with the medical board because, they want to do sex change operations for minors. … A 14-year-old cannot get a tattoo, but somehow …. they will do mastectomies, they will do stuff at the bottom which is very, very problematic and irreversible,” DeSantis said.
“And, you know, these are kids that are going through a growing time in their life. There’s a lot of different factors and most of the dysphoria resolves itself by the time they become adults. So why would you disfigure a minor?” he asked.
“And so, but this is something that the medical establishment has grabbed onto as like something that is about, I don’t know, like opportunity, I don’t even know how they’re couching it, but other countries have gone down this road in Europe. They recognized this was damaging these kids and they’ve reversed course because they’ve actually followed the data,” he said, noting that Florida is also following the data to fight against the medical establishment, which continues to push ideologies that are “very, very dangerous.”
Indeed, Florida has taken steps to challenge the medical establishment in this particular realm. A recent report from Florida Medicaid, requested by the Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), concluded that “gender-affirming” treatments for individuals struggling with gender dysphoria — from puberty blockers to surgeries — are not proven as “safe or effective” treatments but are “experimental and investigational.”
“Studies presenting the benefits to mental health, including those claiming that the services prevent suicide, are either low or very low quality and rely on unreliable methods such as surveys and retrospective analyses, both of which are cross-sectional and highly biased,” the document reads in part.
It was revealed last week that Florida is barring Medicaid from covering transgender procedures — a rule which will go into effect August 21.
DeSantis’s remarks follow the widespread push to normalize transgender procedures on minors — something Boston Children’s Hospital prides itself on, touting its Center for Gender Surgery, which offers “gender affirmation surgery services” for “eligible adolescents and young adults.”
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