Florida has thrown LGBTQ+ people under the bus again… and this time they’d better not be hoping for hospital treatment for their injuries.
Yesterday evening the state’s House approved SB 1580/HB 1403. The Senate approved the legislation last week. It allows healthcare providers and insurers the right to refuse patients in line with their conscience. It’s officially called the “Protections of Medical Conscience” Act.
The legislation includes clarification stating healthcare providers cannot turn anyone away based on their “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
Notice what’s missing from that list?
Yes, there’s nothing about sexual orientation or gender identity. Democratic lawmakers pushed for amendments to include LGBTQ+ protections but they were all rejected in the Republican-majority House and Senate.
During a heated debate on the issue, Democrat Anna Eskamani offered up potential ramifications.
“A nurse could refuse to provide a doctor’s prescription for fertility drugs to a single woman or someone who identifies as a lesbian,” she said. “Nursing homes could refuse to provide elderly, transgender residents for their ongoing hormone treatment.”
“The very intent of this bill is to discriminate”
Fellow Democrat Michele Rayner-Goolsby, who is married to a woman, compared it to Jim Crow laws.
“The sponsor of the bill purports that this bill doesn’t discriminate,” she said. “But listen, y’all. I am old enough, I am Black enough, and I am queer enough, and I’m woman enough to know that the impact of this bill — and I would argue the very intent of this bill is to discriminate against folks.”
The bill passed the Senate on Friday on a 28-11 vote. It passed last night in the House 84-34 vote. It now heads to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk for signing.
The legislation was sponsored in the House by GOP Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman. On his Twitter bio, he describes himself as a “patriotic doctor” who “follows three documents – the Bible, the Constitution, and the Hippocratic Oath.”
In an earlier committee meeting discussing the bill, Rudman claimed, “There’s nothing in this bill that legalizes discrimination.” He has also said the bill is his “entire reason for being here in the Florida Legislature.”
Related:
Florida principal forced to quit after showing Michelangelo’s David in art history lesson
It comes alongside news that the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill will likely be extended to all school years.
Lawmaker who supports Florida’s anti-LGBTQ laws attends Pride. Guess what happened.
Meet Republican Rep. Fabián Basabe.
canadiankid
america’s idea of freedom and equality make no sense… but their conservative rhetoric is infiltrating Canada and it makes me sad.
My2CentsWorth
It makes me sad too because I tried to immigrate to Canada. Not because of political reasons (it was a long time ago and now it WOULD ALSO BE for political reasons).
Canada in the 1960s & 1970s was a wonderful place when compared to the U. S.. The contrast has, no doubt, increased.
The scary thing for me is that the extremist right-wing is gaining ground and there is the danger that it will reign supreme. The U. S. will be similar to some of the most repressive theocracies of the Muslim world where the original intentions of the religion have been perverted to the current state.
RIGay
Just how much more nauseating can Florida become?
I used to travel back and forth to there. I made a conscious decision that, so long as Jesse Helms was in office, the only thing South Carolina would be good for was to stop in the rest area and take a dump. But with Florida no longer considered any part of a destination…
I really have no use for America’s whang any more. Time to hope that invasive species take over and eat these scum.
My2CentsWorth
Florida will become worse AND there will be a competition among some of the states to Out-Florida Florida.
Vince
Because cruelty is their whole point. These assholes that call themselves Christian are as far teachings of Christ as you can get.
Kangol2
+1000!
Diplomat
Religion taught them to be God’s little warriors. State and federal laws have now replaced religious laws. There is no need for ancient laws. But don’t tell that to the religiobots, they might resort to their AR15s.
ShaverC
Anna Eskamani is fear mongering. The bill states that the health care provider must clearly state they are not providing the service before the patient comes in. So in the case of the fertility clinic if the doctor does have lesbian patients and one nurse refuses to help lesbians, that doctor will just use another nurse who doesn’t care. Same with the nursing home, if the organization itself is ok with trans people, and a nurse refuses to provide the needed treatment/meds, then they would get another nurse to do it. There is also a clause that states this bill will not override “any requirement to provide emergency medical treatment in accordance with state law”
I think we all know why this bill was written though, you push too much, you get push-back.
Cam
This is one of the new right wing troll screenames. They always try to come in, lie and claim that right wing bigoted laws aren’t bigoted.
Your trolling is sad and weak.
dbmcvey
This is exactly what Republicans have been trying to do for years to LGBT people. During the marriage equality hearings they were trying to pass laws that medical providers could refuse service because of their beliefs.
Kangol2
You’re blaming LGBTQ for the hatred against us. You are REPELLENT & self-loathing, ShaverC. The monster you see is staring right back at you from the mirror!
ShaverC
Kangol2, I’m not blaming LGB.
Bosch
“Kangol2, I’m not blaming LGB.”
LGBT is a demographic that includes LGB. Don’t you know set theory? Did you sleep through math class?
You side with the homophobes every single time, your anti-trans card is meaningless.
ShaverC
Bosch, That’s right “theory”. LGB is theorem.
Raphael
Somehow, I’m not surprised… The US healthcare system is already a joke to the rest of the world. Sorry.
Cam
Another right wing troll screename trying to deflect attention away from the fact of the bigoted law onto another topic.
dbmcvey
Nobody should be surprised. You’re right, our healthcare system is terrible.
Raphael
Yeah yeah Cam, everybody is a troll… We know already.
Cam
Funny, a brand new screename that has the same response as the same old right wing troll account.
Raphael
Neither my screename nor account are new, stupid. I’m not even from the US, so this “right wing” or whatever, I don’t know or care about…
correctio
@cam why do you support the current for-profit healthcare system?
Raphael
@correctio He doesn’t really care about anything. He’s a sad old man, whose only pleasure is to spend his whole day refreshing Queerty’s page, so he can call everyone he disagrees a “troll”… He’s been doing it for YEARS, it’s kind of pathetic. No one takes him seriously anymore.
Fahd
What does the AMA and the Florida’s Medical Board have to say about these things? Doctors are supposed to follow certain ethical standards with regard to the treatment of patients.
Let Florida be an example of all the terrible things that can happen if right-wing extremists (i.e. modern Republicans) take over a government. There will be a backlash (Disney, for example, will outlast them) – I hope sooner rather than later.
Brian
When Barack Obama was president, he signed a few executive orders about this topic. He said that any medical facilities receiving federal money (like Medicaid) must not discriminate against LGBT patients. People celebrated him for it. People also assumed the debate was over.
The problem is that the USA still has no *law* about this topic. Any president can simply revoke the earlier executive orders. Donald Trump did that a few times, and Joe Biden un-reversed him. That’s going to be our future — LGBT people will only get medical protection depending on the president at the given moment. The federal government has still not come up with a stable, long-term solution.
Mack
Not when their “Jesus” (aka bullshit) tells them differently. Personally I think once the first refusal happens then we ought to take a play out of the Anti-abortionists playbooks. But as usual we’ll sit on our asses and be lead to slaughter like the Jews in Germany.
inbama
@Fahd
The reason the states can ban puberty blockers is because these chemicals have not been approved for the treatment of gender dysphoria. It’s being prescribed “off label.”
nealman
Literally I was planning a trip to Florida that included straight people and now I am not going to go.
Mack
I have a trip for November to Disney World and plan on going and having a gay old time. I plan of flipping off any mention of the Tallahassee Mussolini and any picture there of. Won’t spend a dime anywhere except on the property Disney World.
Fname Optional Lname
Funny how the legislation does not entitle them to deny service to anyone else who does not “live by the good book”. They will serve those who are divorced, those who are glutenous, felons, etc. This is actually worse than living in the 1950s
dbmcvey
It should include divorcees, people wearing blended fabrics…
My2CentsWorth
Do you think that after they have gone after the LGBTQ population that will be the end? It might be difficult since so many of the right wing faux religious people have marriages that were not “made by God” and such laws against divorced people could affect them.
dbmcvey
So much for that hippocratic oath.
But, this is pretty much what conservatives have been going after in regards to gay people for decades. They tried to pass laws that medical providers could refuse to treat gay people because of “deeply held beliefs.”
ingyaom
Actually, the Hippocratic oath doesn’t include anything about swearing to treat all patients. In fact, Hippocratic were trained on how to choose which patients they would treat because if patients didn’t get better or, worse, died, it would reflect poorly on Hippocratic medicine.
preppyesque
Like I have said for years…the only thing that would help Florida (as well as the entire South) is a big mushroom cloud.
scotty
or lots of small mushrooms, packaged in 3 gram packs. twice aweek, forever.
scotty
“do no harm?” unless your deeply held beliefs conflict with your oath. then if you find yourself in this position, you may want to reconsider practicing in florida or even the fact you chose the profession over your beliefs and now you have to find another line of work.
Peter
Are there no gay doctors in Florida willing to test this law by refusing to treat hetero patients, based on their own beliefs? If/when they get sued, it goes to court and they can site the barbaric law that just passed as the basis for their own behavior. We’ll see how that goes over.
still_onthemark
That would be a great test case, maybe with a willing hetero “victim” – kind of like the famous Julius bar case in New York in 1966.
dreyam
I think Christ (whoever he was) would be horrified and disgusted at the way a religion allegedly based on his teachings of humility, love, forgiveness and caring for one another has been so thoroughly corrupted into one of bigotry, intolerance, gratuitous cruelty and plain old hatred.
inbama
Mother warned you, and you responded “Hey, Boomer.”
You followed gender extremists off a cliff and taken us all down with you.
Congratulations.
dbmcvey
Yeah, this is because of trans people.
Really, what’s wrong with you?
BigJohnSF
Their intention is to permit doctors to refuse to prescribe estrogen to male children, essentially. As a gay man, this has nothing to do with me.
Cam
Same old right wing troll account always comes in and blames “The Left” for Republican bigots doing what Republican bigots always do.
dbmcvey
Hey John,
They can refuse to treat you because they sincerely disagree with your gay “lifestyle.” This is a truly despicable law. It’s possible they could just let people die.
still_onthemark
@BigJohnSF: The bill is not just anti-trans; it will also allow discrimination against gay men (and lesbians and bisexuals). Do you really think that won’t happen?
Kangol2
@Bama, you’re blaming LGBTQ for the hatred against us. This is repellent and self-loathing. The monster you see is staring right back at you from the mirror.
inbama
@dbmcvey
It’s not because of transpeople – it’s because of Gender Ideology and the 5 billion dollar industry that pays for it.
But hey, trolls like you, abfab and Cam can call me all the names you want – you and your arrogance brought this down on us all – gay, trans and in between. Everybody knows it wasn’t me. My generation won the rights you all took for granted. We won those rights by showing the other side was lying, and we were more just like everyone else than different. You lie, call names and bully. That’s all you’re good for.
DavidIntl
Well, writing from Florida here… I am inclined to agree. I have trans friends whose health and wellbeing I care about, and I don’t want to throw them under the bus. But I do believe that a lot of what we are seeing is indeed in reaction to the more ambitious side of the trans movement. There are many people who before were supportive of gay rights, or at least indifferent to them, who are now supporting this pushback because they felt things were going too far, or too fast, into uncharted territory.
And I am really tired of seeing the commenters here repeatedly shooting down anyone who don’t agree with them on absolutely everything, declaring them to be “right-wing troll accounts”. We should be able to have an open and courteous conversation about pretty much any topic – there really are at least two sides to many of these questions. And not all gay people are hard-left-wing activists. Nor should they be, if in fact we want acceptance from the country as a whole. Given that the US is such a sharply-divided 50/50 country, if your orientation is seen as inevitably dictating your political outlook, then 50% of the country will hate all gays – if not for being gay per se, then for being left-wing. We might actually benefit from having the gay equivalents of, say, Clarence Thomas or TIm Scott, in more prominent roles.
Bosch
“gender ideology”
Let’s not forget everything was fine until Trump kicked off the new scapegoating by banning trans people from the army. Before that moment, no one gave a crap about which bathroom trans people use, which team they play on, how the medical worlds handles trans-identified teenagers…
The republicans chose trans people as a political platform, and the democrats decided to fight back.
Victim blaming is messy, and it’s exactly the same thing that they were doing to us when we were fighting for gay rights.
It is not acceptable to sacrifice trans people just so the homophobes will accept the rest of us.
Mikki
Reason #1894 why I will never set foot in Florida again.
Rocinante
Go ahead Doc; but don’t be surprised when you end up with an ice pick in your skull.
FreddieW
I believe only crappy doctors run for office. Ben Carson and Scott DesJarlais and Bill Frist convinced me. Why would a good doctor become a politician?
James
Have the morons known as the log cabin club endorsed nazi trash De Satanis yet.
My2CentsWorth
They will even if they have to go the back door (as Black had to do for restaurants & etc.) to submit their endorsement.
LegionKeign
A lot of the healthcare facilities in florida have been bought up by “christian/catholic” corporations/hedge funds. They come in and buy the hospitals, clinics and even doctors practices and then pay the politicians to pass these kinds of bills (which are crafted in their so-called “think tanks”.
This is straight-up christo-fascism at it’s finest folks and will spread to every red state.
correctio
Well it’s not like the Democrats are going to do anything to stop this type of consolidation. Dems are in bed with the insurance companies and capitalists. Big picture: Republican extremism/cruelty is used as a distraction to prevent us from seeing the real underlying problem, which is the privatization of basically everything (healthcare, education, etc etc)