Medical experts, parents, and trans youth agree: Gender-affirming care saves lives.
New York, NY— Family Equality, the leading national organization for current and future LGBTQ+ families, condemns the guidance issued today by the Florida Department of Health that opposes science-backed health care resources for transgender youth in the state.
“Guidances like this, which evidence shows risk the lives and well-being of transgender youth, are antithetical to the golden standard of care that we—and so many of the families we serve—strive to uphold: Put the best interest of children above all,” says Stacey Stevenson, CEO of Family Equality. “Decades of evidence and countless leading experts agree that affirming healthcare for transgender and nonbinary youth can save lives. We need to be working to support parents, who along with their family’s physicians, should be guiding medical decisions about their child.”
“We’re seeing an increasing number of policies and practices that target and threaten transgender youth and LGBTQ+ families across the country,” says Shelbi Day, Chief Policy Officer. “This is especially true in Florida, where this non-binding guidance comes on the heels of numerous other attempts to target LGBTQ+ youth and families living in the state. These kinds of attacks on our youth and families must be stopped.”
The guidance follows the passage of Florida’s recent “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, which gained national notoriety for attempting to erase LGBTQ+ youth and families from the classroom. Family Equality, alongside their lawyers from Kaplan Heck & Fink LLP and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and co-Plaintiffs Equality Florida and individuals including parents, students, and a teacher, announced in late March that they’ve filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law. To read more about the actions taken, read “Florida Parents and Students Challenge ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law as Harmful and Unconstitutional.’”
About Family Equality
Family Equality advances legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ families, and for those who wish to form them, through building community, changing hearts and minds, and driving policy change. Family Equality believes every LGBTQ+ person should have the right and opportunity to form and sustain a loving family, regardless of who they are or where they live. Learn more at familyequality.org.
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