Learn more about the rules being promulgated by the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine to restrict access to treatment for gender dysphoria for minors in the state of Florida. Learn what you can do to get involved today!

LGBTQ+ and health advocacy groups Southern Legal Counsel, Lambda Legal, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program, together with international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, filed a federal lawsuit today challenging Florida’s anti-transgender health care rule denying coverage for transgender Medicaid beneficiaries’ medically necessary gender-affirming medical care. The lawsuit, Dekker, et al., v. Marstiller, et al., Case No. 4:22-cv-00325-RH-MAF (Hinkle, J.), was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida against the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), on behalf of four plaintiffs.

Florida House Bill 1557, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 and restricts such discussions for students through grade 12 based on undefined standards of appropriateness.

“Ignoring thousands of public comments and expert testimony, Florida’s AHCA has finalized a rule that will deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults. This discriminatory and medically unsound rule will take effect on August 21, 2022, putting transgender people in jeopardy of losing access to critical gender-affirming health care services.

The lawsuit argues that the law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 and restricts such discussions for students through grade 12 based on undefined standards of appropriateness, effectively silences and erases LGBTQ+ students and families. The law demands that school districts implement its terms, and it empowers any parent to directly sue the school district if they are dissatisfied with its implementation of the law.

Southern Legal Counsel’s work on behalf of a transgender Marion County high school student paid off this spring when she was able to walk in her graduation ceremony after bullying and a lack of support from school staff pushed her out of school.

Removing barriers to transgender individuals’ ability to access the legal-name and gender-marker change processes has been a consistent mission of SLC’s Transgender Rights Initiative. We have ensured that Florida birth certificates can be amended without proof of sex reassignment surgery, and we also developed a first of its kind website, FloridaNameChange.org, to make the processes easier to navigate without an attorney. Recently, SLC worked with the Florida Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) to amend its policy for amending the gender marker on drivers licenses to make the process more accessible to the transgender community.

An important component of SLC’s Transgender Rights Initiative is building the capacity of others in Florida to represent, protect, affirm, and support transgender individuals statewide.

During Pride Month and on into July we are holding two trainings for which registration is now open.

Pride Month 2021: Best Practices for Representing LGBTQ+ Youth will be held June 29 through the Florida Legal Services Statewide Training Initiative and is sponsored by the Public Interest Law Section of The Florida Bar. Register here.

Free Statewide Transgender Legal Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic will be presented by SLC and Akerman on July 10th. Register here.

As the Trump Administration came to an end in January, so did efforts to roll back transgender protections under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Equal Access Rule.

Southern Legal Counsel was among the organizations that issued statements protesting a rule HUD first proposed in the spring of 2019 that appeared to weaken the Equal Access Rule and its enforcement mechanisms, which require equal access to housing and homeless services for transgender and gender-non-conforming (TGNC) individuals. At the time, sex-segregated shelters could not refuse to admit TGNC persons and were required to house them according to their gender identity.

In partnership with Equality Florida, the state’s largest statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, Southern Legal Counsel has engaged with all 67 Florida school districts to educate their leadership, personnel, students and parents on how to affirm, support, and protect LGBTQ students and their rights.

Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) led a coalition of Florida-based organizations submitting a formal comment to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today on a proposed Equal Access rule change that seeks to rollback protections requiring that LGBTQ individuals have equal access to housing and homeless services.