Floridian mess Ron DeSantis and him administration have been targeting trans folks pretty intensely, but they may be poised to learn the true meaning of “f*ck around and find out”.
This weekend, the Agency for Health Care Administration in Florida officially ended medicaid reimbursements for trans-affirming care.
Several queer advocacy groups like Lambda Legal and the Florida Health Justice Project are set to file lawsuits to put a stop to this rule as quickly as it’s begun.
Simone Chriss, director of the Trans Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, is among those intending to request that a federal judge block the rule.
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“There’s really no room to play around with something this awful,” she tells the Orlando Weekly.
Related: Why Ron DeSantis could soon live to regret ever messing with the LGBTQ community
Meanwhile, Florida’s health agency regards itself fully in the right to pull coverage from trans people needing care.
An AHCA spokesman says that the agency is “prepared to defend the integrity of our well-established rule-making process.”
Even further, Communications Director Brock Juarez says, “The Agency will not comment further beyond stating that these attacks are clearly coming from unscientific and partisan-motivated organizations posturing for a lawsuit against the rule.”
Related: Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces law banning gender affirming care for minors
It should be noted that plenty of cosmetic and medical procedures that trans people undergo are also sought out by cis folks; cis men get top surgery to treat gynecomastia, cis women get various facial feminization surgeries, etc.
The difference is that trans folks’ gender dysphoria creates an urgency for these interventions that agencies like the AHCA would rather ignore.
“The exact same hormones, prescriptions, surgeries, procedures, the exact same treatment and care are available to cisgender people for a number of reasons,” Chriss says.
“To carve transgender people or people with gender dysphoria out from care that is available to everyone else for any other reason as medically necessary is blatant discrimination on the basis of sex, and there’s no way around that.”
Thankfully, queer advocacy groups and attorneys are ready to make DeSantis’ administration listen.
