Press Releases

FLORIDA BOARDS OF MEDICINE RULEMAKING: STANDARDS OF CARE FOR TREATMENT OF GENDER DYSPHORIA IN MINORS

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!

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LGBTQ+ and Health Groups Sue to Block Florida’s Anti-Transgender Medicaid Health Care Rule

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.

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SLC AND PARTNER LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS URGE COURT TO BLOCK FLORIDA LAW KNOWN AS "DON'T SAY GAY"

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.

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LGBTQ AND HEALTH GROUPS DENOUNCE FLORIDA’S ADOPTION OF ANTI-TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE RULE

“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.

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ADVOCATES URGE FLORIDA BOARD OF MEDICINE TO REJECT ANTI-TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE GUIDANCE

“Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, Lambda Legal, and National Health Law Program urge the Florida Board of Medicine to stop playing politics with people’s health care and not to adopt guidelines for a standard of care to treat gender dysphoria that are contrary to the evidence-based and overwhelming consensus that gender-affirming medical care for the treatment of gender dysphoria is safe, effective, and medically necessary.”

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FLORIDA FAMILIES AND ADVOCACY GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK THE FLORIDA LAW KNOWN AS “DON’T SAY GAY”

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.

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Florida Seeks to Exclude Medicaid Coverage of All Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Floridians

On June 17, 2022, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rule for a new rule that would deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults. Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, Lambda Legal, and National Health Law Program are engaging in and carefully monitoring the rule-making process, and you can read their statements and obtain more information at ProtectFLtranshealth.org.

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FLORIDA AHCA LAUNCHES SHAM ANTI-TRANSGENDER RULE-MAKING PROCESS

“Two weeks ago, we highlighted the fact that Governor DeSantis’s administration was intent on issuing a proposed new rule based on junk science and discredited so-called experts to justify denying Medicaid coverage for hormone therapy and other accepted medical interventions, as well as for gender-confirming surgery, for transgender Floridians. We expressed our concern that AHCA seemingly had predetermined the outcome, which today’s announcement makes all the clearer.”

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NON-BINDING GUIDANCE FROM FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ON “TREATMENT OF GENDER DYSPHORIA FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS” CONTRARY TO MEDICAL CONSENSUS

Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) works to protect the rights of transgender individuals throughout Florida, including the rights of transgender youth to access medically necessary, gender-affirming care. SLC stands with transgender youth and families throughout Florida and seeks to provide clarity for those who are concerned about the impact of the guidance released yesterday.

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SLC REMOVES YET ANOTHER BARRIER TO LEGAL AUTHENTICITY

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.

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SLC HOLDS PRIDE MONTH TRAININGS

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.

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SLC FIGHTS FOR EQUAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

SLC filed a lawsuit in federal court in January of 2020 challenging the State of Florida’s exclusion of coverage for the gender-affirming medical needs of transgender state employees, citing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The case is now at the summary judgment stage and is under consideration by the honorable Judge Mark Eaton Walker in the Northern District of Florida. Motions for summary judgment and other pleadings are on SLC’s Promoting LGBTQ+ Equality page.

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FLORIDA BANS TRANSGENDER YOUTH FROM SPORTS AMID NATIONWIDE LEGISLATIVE ATTACK ON LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

As part of a strategic, targeted attack on the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States, over 250 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country this year, making 2021 the worst year for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in recent history. The Florida Legislature was no exception.

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ROLLBACK OF HUD’S TRANSGENDER PROTECTIONS FAILS IN WANING DAYS OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

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.

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SOUTHERN LEGAL COUNSEL LEADS COALITION OPPOSING HUD RULE CHANGE TARGETING TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS

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.

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ADVOCACY GROUPS SUE FLORIDA GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA OVER DISCRIMINATORY TRANSGENDER HEALTH-CARE BAN

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Southern Legal Counsel, the ACLU of Florida, and pro bono attorney Eric Lindstrom today filed a federal lawsuit against the Florida Department of Management Services, the University of Florida, and the Public Defender of the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida on behalf of named plaintiffs Jami Claire and Kathryn Lane, who as state employees were denied medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria because of the state’s categorical exclusion of coverage for “gender reassignment or modification services or supplies.”

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SLC’S SIMONE CHRISS PRESENTS AT WORLD’S LARGEST TRANSGENDER CONFERENCE

Southern Legal Counsel attorney Simone Chriss presented about SLC’s innovative transgender services delivery model, FloridaNameChange.org, at the July 24-27 Mazzoni Trans Wellness Conference in Philadelphia, the largest trans-specific conference in the world. Developed by SLC and the Florida Justice Technology Center, FloridaNameChange.org provides online access to the legal name change process in each of Florida’s 67 counties, as well as the process for updating the name and gender marker on all government-issued identification documents.

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SLC SUPPORTS HUD EQUAL ACCESS RULE

The Department of Housing and Urban Development May 22 proposed new rules that would weaken protections for transgender people who are experiencing homelessness by allowing federally funded shelters to deny them admission or require them to share bathrooms and sleeping areas with people of a different gender identity.

Under current federal regulations adopted by HUD, sex-segregated homeless shelters must admit all transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and house those individuals according to their gender identity.

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