TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — A Florida state legislator claimed that Republicans are “erasing our trans babies” by seeking to restrict harmful transgender drugs and surgeries.
Democratic Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani made the comments on March 13 at a rally held by pro-LGBT activists while a Florida Senate committee debated Senate Bill 254. The legislation would prohibit gender-confused minors from receiving puberty blockers and surgeries that would permanently sever their reproductive capabilities and remove other healthy organs.
The legislation would also protect kids in custody disputes from having genital and chemical mutilation forced on them by one parent.
“When you strip away access to gender-affirming care, you are erasing trans people. You are erasing our trans babies!” – Rep. Eskamani pic.twitter.com/Ej3FsAuNN7
— Matt Lamb (@MattLamb22) March 20, 2023
“When you strip away access to gender-affirming care, you are erasing trans people. You are erasing our trans babies!” Eskamani said during the rally. She also claimed Governor Ron DeSantis “wants to commit genocide on trans people” before defending drag shows.
“When you demonize drag, you are demonizing queer culture,” the leftist Democrat said to rapturous cheers from the LGBT activists behind her.
Her comments drew criticism from a top Democrat who indicated the rhetoric was hurting the party. “Anna is why we lose,” an unnamed official told The Florida Standard.
The legislation follows a series of actions by the Floridian government meant to protect kids from harmful drugs and surgeries aimed at changing one’s gender.
For example, two medical boards in Florida voted in February to further extend the prohibition on minors taking cross-sex hormones, puberty blocking drugs, and getting genital surgeries as part of the state’s larger efforts to stop the chemical and genital mutilation of children, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
The February 10 joint meeting vote by the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine and the Florida Board of Medicine closed a loophole that allowed universities to give kids “puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery to treat gender dysphoria,” as part of clinical trials, Florida’s Voice reported.
In October, the Board of Medicine voted to ban transgender drugs and surgeries for minors but allowed for the university experimentation exception. The February vote eliminated this exception.
At a January 31 news conference, DeSantis denounced medical professionals for “giving teenagers, kids puberty blockers. They’re doing sex change operations. And so we actually have, you know, young adults who went through this when they were minors, and they’re saying this is a huge mistake. And, in fact, it’s not evidence based.”
In April, the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, released guidance warning against transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) Guidance stated:
Based on the currently available evidence, ‘encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm.
The guidance document pointed to a “a lack of conclusive evidence” for “gender transitioning” and “the potential for long-term, irreversible effects,” and noted that analysis of the benefits of hormonal interventions “show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias.”
LifeSiteNews has compiled testimonies from formerly gender-confused people along with insights from credential medical experts on the harms of transgenderism. This is a resource for confronting LGBT activists and helping gender-confused individuals realize the harms of chemical and surgical mutilations. Read more here.
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