Transgender care for minors targeted by House Health Care Committee

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Transgender care for minors makes Randy Fine think of Auschwitz physician Dr. Josef Mengele

Rep. Randy Fine will be taking steps to prohibit physicians from providing minors access to transgender care, a move that would enshrine in law controversial restrictions recently put in place by the state’s two main medical boards at the urging of the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Fine, a Brevard County Republican in charge of the House’s top health care committee, concluded a two-hour meeting on Tuesday where he outlined plans to pursue legislation to ban the provision of gender-affirming or gender-confirming care to minors in the state.

“You all know I am Jewish and I study the Holocaust. … And I will tell you that when I hear this discussion, when I hear this discussion, and I hear these medicines, hear this, I think of Dr. Mengele who was another doctor,” Fine said, referencing Dr. Josef Mengele who infamously conducted medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz.

“So I will tell you this, I say these panels are often a predicate of what’s to come. That’s exactly what today was. And I promise you you’ll like the bill that’s coming.”

Fine told Florida Politics after the meeting that the bill will most likely be tailored to those under the age of 18.

“I generally don’t believe adults should be told what they can and cannot do so long as they pay for it themselves,” he said.

While no minor in Florida can receive health care without the consent of a parent or legal guardian Fine said “there is no parental right to child abuse.”

The Legislature’s decision to step into the debate over gender-affirming care follows actions over the last few months that were initially suggested by State Surgeon General Joseph Ladadpo and given strong vocal support by DeSantis.  But they have been sharply criticized by those in the transgender community and many Democrats.

Fine’s announcement about legislation came after a legislative committee meeting where he assembled a variety of now-familiar panelists who have previously appeared before the Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine. That included Chloe Cole, an 18-year California resident who got a double mastectomy right before her 16th birthday and now regrets her choices. 

California endocrinologist Michael K. Laidlaw who maintains that people with gender dysphoria should be treated with mental health services also appeared before the committee. Laidlaw has also appeared as an expert witness in the legal challenge being waged over Floriea’s rule banning Medicaid from reimbursing for gender-affirming or gender-confirming health care for all residents.

Board of Medicine Chairman Scot N. Ackerman also was on the panel. Ackerman said the board rule that bans physicians from providing gender-affirming care to minors would go into effect on March 16 unless it is challenged in court.

The Board of Osteopathic Medicine altered its proposed rule on gender-conforming and affirming care earlier, so the rule won’t take effect until later in the spring unless it’s also challenged.

David Leatherwood, the leader of the Florida Chapter of Gays against Groomers, was also featured on the panel as was sociologist Michael Biggs. Psychiatrist Stephen B. Levine rounded out the panel members who spoke Tuesday.

Fine said he had invited a Miami-based gender affirmation surgeon Dr. Sidbhb Gallagher from TikTok, but she didn’t respond.

Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby issued a statement saying the panel meeting was the “latest attack in a line of vicious actions to erase the trans community in Florida.”

“The panel lacked the input of a single medical expert on gender-affirming care and the refusal to take speaker suggestions from the Democratic caucus or allow public comment further demonstrates the intent behind the panel,” she said in a prepared statement.

“It should not be controversial in the Florida Legislature to leave medical decisions to patients, parents, and their doctors,” she added. “Nearly 30 of the leading medical groups across the country recognize the medical necessity of treatments for gender dysphoria and endorse these treatments. Florida’s parents should have the right to follow the evidence-based science to provide the best care for their child.”

Meanwhile, Cole shared her transition story as well as her journey back from the medical continuum, including going cold turkey off hormones. Following her mastectomy she feels “phantom breasts,” telling members, “I’ll feel them move even though they are not there.”

Christine Jordan Sexton

Tallahassee-based health care reporter who focuses on health care policy and the politics behind it. Medicaid, health insurance, workers’ compensation, and business and professional regulation are just a few of the things that keep me busy.


5 comments

  • Mac Wiseman

    February 21, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    Its a shame a small minority of twisted leftists politicians brought this problem to Florida for their own perceived method to hold onto political power in the first place. Thank you elected conservatives for taking your precious time from running our Great State of Florida to mop up this stinking mess.

    • Mac Wiseman

      February 21, 2023 at 8:38 pm

      Do any ladies here have some feet pics they want to sell me?
      I’m also interested in your dirty underwear too.

  • Kimmy Rohrer

    February 21, 2023 at 10:25 pm

    Hi I am a 56 yr old male in transition..From the very beginning I knew I was different. Even the doctor who birth me told my mother I should have been a girl. First of all at 12 years old
    when I reach puberty I had breasts which is gynecomastia in boys. This goes away after a few months to 18 months it’s caused by extra estrogen released into the blood through the mother well mine never did disappear there’s a girly looking kid with breasts and I was made to feel like a freak in that time. My cousins were homophobic and dad was homophobic he used to call me a lesbian in a man’s body I was made to feel ashamed
    of myself. I did my best to be the male my dad and my mother expected me to my family and I was always miserable I never was happy with the person I saw in the mirror cuz I never was that person I hated everything about me at 55 years old my father passed my marriage was destroyed because of female tendencies in fact my whole life was riddled with failure running from myself. I’ve been diagnosed as little personality class b clustered disorder. Bipolar clinically depressed whatever they can
    throw at me. They gotten so bad I don’t know only wanted to live when my dad passed in February of 2021. The same month my marriage ended I was at my end and decided to end this nightmare of living trapped. I spent two months restoring an old rusty gun that didn’t work found in the dirt. And when it was finally ready I loaded it and put it to my head and I pulled the hammer back in the firing pin flew across the room and burst into tears as I couldn’t even do that right I said I can no longer live this life but given the chance to be who I am I want to live is at that point that I saw that transition and I’ve never been clearer or happier in my whole life. And now I’m being told again by these politicians that I am a freak. Reminds me back in the seventies that same attitude my family had old traditional Sicilian Catholics why can’t you see it for what it is just like any other birth defect. My body produces estrogen at an alarming rate for a male at 56 years old before hormone therapy my estrogen level is 400 30 points lower than ovulating female in the prime of her life and my testosterone level is seven. I don’t have any money for surgery I only hope to be happy and what life I have left was that hormone therapy to be as feminine as possible. And now that is on the point of being taken away from me. Why can’t you just leave us alone to live. You take testimony from what I don’t know the facts but it can’t be more than a fraction of a percent of individuals who have had past regrets for the surgery compared to all the others that are living lives and happily I mean would you rather me be a boy liking boys.or a girl liking boys .

  • Elliott Offen

    February 21, 2023 at 10:42 pm

    Conservatives should be sterilized at birth. Ain’t nobody got time for this clown show anymore.

    • TJ

      February 23, 2023 at 1:05 am

      Luckily, it’s all the rabid leftists that are sterilizing themselves. Whether we’re talking about long-term birth control, abortion, being with members of the same sex, etc. Give it a couple generations

Comments are closed.


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