Tampa - Thursday May 18, 2023: Governor DeSantis Wednesday signed into law a bill outlawing transgender medical treatments for minors and prohibiting physicians from prescribing experimental puberty blockers for children.
Other bills signed into law include a measure prohibiting children from attending drag shows, a measure to protect students from having to declare their pronouns in school; another bill to ensure that Florida’s bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms can only be used by biological men, and biological women, and legislation that allows prayers before high school athletic contests.
“Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
• Prohibits sex reassignment surgeries and experimental puberty blockers for children
• Requires adult patients who are receiving these medications or surgeries to be informed about the dangers and irreversible nature of these procedures and to give written, informed consent
• Provides courts temporary emergency jurisdiction to step in and halt sex reassignment procedures for out-of-state children present in Florida
• Creates a pathway for individuals to obtain damages when they were injured or killed after receiving sex reassignment surgeries or medications as minors
• Protects students from having to declare their pronouns in school
• Expands parental rights in education by prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in Pre-K through 8th grade
• Protects children from sexually explicit performances in all venues
• Prohibits a person from knowingly admitting a minor to an adult performances, such as drag shows
• Authorizes the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to fine, suspend, or revoke the operating or alcohol licenses of hotels or restaurants if they admit a child into an adult performance.
• Ensures that Florida’s bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms are safe places for women.
• Requires educational institutions, detention facilities, correctional institutions, juvenile correctional facilities, and public buildings with a restroom or changing facility to designate separate facilities based on biological sex or to provide one-person unisex facilities.
• Allows private school, virtual school, and home school students to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities at other public or private schools, regardless of zip code.
• Allows teams to provide brief opening remarks, including prayers, before high school athletic contests.
• Reorganizes the FHSAA Board of Directors to 13 members, instead of the current 16 members. Four members will be elected by school representative members while eight members will be appointed by the governor, and the final member will be the Commissioner of Education or his designee.
