PROMOTING LGBTQ+ EQUALITY

Southern Legal Counsel has been on the front lines, holding the state accountable for denying transgender Floridians access to medically necessary gender-affirming healthcare. Empirical evidence and decades of clinical experience demonstrate that medical care for the treatment of gender dysphoria, also known as “gender-affirming care,” is medically necessary, safe, and effective for transgender adolescents and adults with gender dysphoria. In fact, this care has been accepted and supported by every major medical organization in the United States, and is the prevailing standard of care. When states, like Florida, deny transgender individuals access to critical and essential medical treatment, they are acting in a discriminatory manner and carving out transgender individuals for unequal treatment and unequal access to healthcare.

Southern Legal Counsel has been leading the fight for access to gender-affirming healthcare since 2020, and the need for this work has never been greater.

We currently have three (3) separate federal lawsuits against the state of Florida challenging discriminatory bans on gender-affirming medical care.

In Jane Doe v. Surgeon General Ladapo, Case No. 4:23-cv-00114 (N.D. Fla. 2023), we challenged the Florida Boards of Medicine rules banning doctors from prescribing medically necessary gender-affirming care to minors. We filed this case on behalf of four incredible parents seeking to ensure appropriate medical care for their transgender children, and challenged the discriminatory rules under the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Our co-counsel in that case include the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), GLAD, and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

In Dekker v. Weida, Case No. 4:22-cv-00325 (N.D. Fla. 2022), we challenged the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration’s (AHCA) discriminatory ban prohibiting Florida’s Medicaid program from covering treatments for gender dysphoria. We filed the lawsuit, challenging the rule under the Equal Protection Clause, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, and the Medicaid Act, alongside our fearless partners at Florida Health Justice Project, Lambda Legal, National Health Law Program, and pro bono law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

In Claire v. Florida Department of Management Services, Case No. 4:20-cv-00020 (N.D. Fla. 2020), we challenged the state’s blanket exclusion of gender-affirming care in all health insurance plans offered to state employees. The denial of equal benefits violates the rights of all transgender state employees under Title VII, and violates their Equal Protection rights to be free from sex discrimination. Our partners in that suit are the ACLU of Florida and Legal Services of Greater Miami. (LSGMI).

See Cases Here

Also, check out our Resources page and click on “Transgender Healthcare”

SLC strives to ensure all LGBTQ+ students have access to safe and affirming learning environments where they can thrive and succeed. Unfortunately, the majority of transgender or gender non-conforming students (77%) and gay, lesbian, and bisexual students (64%) experience mistreatment at school, 75% of trans youth report feeling unsafe or uncomfortable at school, and 17% of trans youth experience such severe mistreatment that they leave school as a result. SLC’s LGBTQ+ school advocacy project focuses on ensuring schools are protecting and affirming LGBTQ+ youth and upholding their constitutional and statutory rights. This includes advocating for the school to use the students’ affirmed names and pronouns, ensuring the student has access to bathrooms, facilities, and gender-specific activities in accordance with their gender identity, assisting students in need of supports and accommodations through the special education process, and providing training and resources to school and district staff and administration statewide.

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. Highlights from this project include:

Publishing a series of LGBTQ+ Legal Notes, each of which contain a topic-specific legal analysis, an overview of the districts’ legal duties, and self-empowering “Know Your Rights” tips for students and parents. These two-page explainers (links to each below) are distributed monthly to school district attorneys, social workers, staff, leadership, and LGBTQ+ liaisons within every school district in Florida.

Training more than 600 school district staff, principals, social workers, teachers, and others involved in Florida’s public school system through a comprehensive program on how to create an affirming, inclusive learning environment for transgender students. As a result of the training, school districts are making changes to their registration forms and student information systems and are moving towards more inclusive policies and practices that promote the academic success and overall well being of LGBTQ+ youth.

See Cases and Resources Here

Southern Legal Counsel’s Transgender Rights Initiative was initialy developed to fill a gap in access to justice by systemically providing assistance to transgender individuals statewide in obtaining legal name and gender-marker changes. SLC seeks to prevent discrimination against the transgender community as a result of having legal identification documents that do not reflect individuals’ gender identity. There is a direct correlation between possessing inaccurate identification documents and being denied employment, housing, and other life necessities, which contribute to high rates of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness within the transgender community.

We have offered legal name and gender-marker change assistance by conducting in-person clinics and workshops across Florida, providing training to legal aid organizations and pro bono attorneys throughout the state to build their capacity to do this work, and collaborating with trans advocacy organizations and support groups statewide.

Most notably, we developed Florida Name Change, a first-of-its-kind free online tool to assist transgender individuals statewide in changing their names and updating their identification documents. Nothing else like FloridaNameChange.org exists in the country. The website includes the forms and processes for obtaining a legal name change in all 67 counties in Florida and utilizes a question-and-answer format to easily complete the complex paperwork. The online tool also assists users in amending the name and gender marker on their Social Security record, Florida driver’s license or ID card, U.S. Passport, and Florida Birth Certificate.

Visit Florida Name Change Here

The transgender community experiences a poverty rate of 29% (2x rate of general population), an unemployment rate of 15% (3x rate of general population), 30% have experienced homelessness, and LGBTQ+ youth make up 40% of all homeless youth in the U.S. These statistics worsen when race and disability are taken into account.

Southern Legal Counsel has led the charge in Florida to create more affirming and inclusive housing and homelessness services for the transgender community. We have trained multiple Continuums of Care, consisting of dozens of housing and homeless services providers, on how to provide inclusive and affirming services to 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.

The rule change would allow sex discrimination against transgender and other individuals seeking shelter in single-sex facilities and allow those managing the facilities to make biological sex determinations by assessing “factors such as height, the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and other physical characteristics” of the shelter seeker.” The facility also would be able to request a birth certificate, other identification, or medical records.

SLC, One Orlando Alliance, Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, Equality Florida and Zebra Coalition collaborated on this in opposition to the proposed rule change, which was unnecessary and unlawful, violated the sex-discrimination principles set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bostock, was wholly unsupported by data, and did not align with HUD’s central mission of ensuring discrimination-free housing for all persons, including LGBTQ individuals.

A 2016 HUD Rule requires single-sex facilities to place individuals in accordance with their self-identified gender identity and bars inquiries into a person’s sex with respect to temporary or emergency shelters, adding those additional protections to a 2012 rule requiring that housing be made available regardless of gender identity and barring inquiries into gender identity and sexual orientation in various circumstances. The proposed HUD rule would remove the protections in place for transgender individuals and allow for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, resulting in transgender individuals being even less likely to find shelter, housing, and affirming services.

SLC worked with pro bono attorneys, statewide LGBTQ advocacy groups and housing services providers to submit a comment in opposition to this discriminatory rule on September 21, 2020. The comments submitted by SLC and myriad other organizations nationwide resulted in success, as HUD withdrew the proposed rule, leaving in place the 2012 and 2016 HUD Rule protections for transgender individuals.

The HUD Comment by Southern Legal Counsel can be found here.

SLC also joined Equality Florida and 23 other LGBTQ advocacy groups in drafting and submitting a Letter of Support for the Equal Access Rule.

The transgender community experiences a poverty rate of 29% (2x rate of general population), an unemployment rate of 15% (3x rate of general population), 30% have experienced homelessness, and LGBTQ+ youth make up 40% of all homeless youth in the U.S. These statistics worsen when race and disability are taken into account.

Southern Legal Counsel has led the charge in Florida to create more affirming and inclusive housing and homelessness services for the transgender community. We have trained multiple Continuums of Care, consisting of dozens of housing and homeless services providers, on how to provide inclusive and affirming services to transgender individuals. Two of these were full-day trainings for two community Continuums of Care (Orlando and Alachua) representing 140 housing and homeless service providers to improve housing stability for transgender individuals. These resulted in concrete changes to policies to accommodate transgender individuals. Additionally, we have provided dozens of LGBTQ+ and transgender-specific cultural competency trainings (including 8 trainings to over 400 individuals in 2018-19) which resulted in operational changes by legal services, housing and homeless service providers to adopt more inclusive and affirming practices. As transgender people are traditionally underserved, this focus on training has increased access to services that are necessary to achieve economic and housing stability.

We trained the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida and the North Central Florida Alliance for the Homeless and Hungry in achieving their goals for improving equal access to homeless and housing services for transgender individuals by providing training and support to incorporate best practices into service delivery. The phased training program armed participants with tools to create welcoming and inclusive housing and homeless services for LGBT clients with a special focus on transgender and gender non-conforming clients. We also provided consultation and support as the Continuums of Care worked toward becoming communities of inclusion and incorporating best practices into their service delivery systems.

We have provided similar trainings to legal services and homeless and housing providers across the state and nationally. A select few examples include:

“Moving Towards Inclusive Housing & Homeless Services” (full-day) & “Trans 101: What Housing and Homeless Service Providers Need to Know” (1 hour), Training for the Housing Services Network of Central Florida in Orlando

“Inclusive Housing and Homeless Services for Transgender Clients.” Breakout session, Florida Supportive Housing Coalition, Supportive Housing Summit: Housing + Services, The Keys to Success, Orlando, FL

“Housing and Homeless Rights: Legal Obligations of Service Providers and Local Communities” Pre conference one-day session (included section on LGBT cultural sensitivity and legal obligations for housing/homeless providers), Florida Institute on Homelessness & Supportive Housing, Orlando, FL

“Inclusive and Innovative Legal Services for Transgender Clients.” Breakout session, National Legal Aid & Defender Association Annual Conference, Safeguarding Justice for All, Washington, D.C. & at the Equal Justice Conference, American Bar Association, San Diego, CA

“Inclusive Legal Services for Transgender Clients.” One-day interactive training for legal helpline attorneys at Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Sanford, FL (November 2017)

“Inclusive Legal Services for Transgender Clients.” Webinar for Florida civil legal aid lawyers in Florida