Florida bill seeks to take trans kids away from affirming parents

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

As Florida starts a new legislative session this week, one bill among a wave of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ rights would allow state courts to remove trans minors from their parents’ custody if the child receives or is “at risk” of receiving gender-affirming healthcare.

The GOP-sponsored SB 254 would also reach across state lines to authorize Florida courts to “vacate, stay or modify a child custody determination of a court of another state,” effectively denying parents who are supportive of their child’s gender transition in so-called “safe states” custody of their children.

“This is becoming interstate legislative warfare over trans youth,” posted trans activist Erin Reed.

The legislation would enable one parent opposed to their child’s transition to seize them from the other and stop treatment.

The bill, introduced by State Sen. Clay Yarborough (R), would grant Florida courts authority to take “emergency jurisdiction” of trans youth who receive or may receive puberty blockers and hormone therapy, or what the bill calls “sex-reassignment prescriptions,” and other gender-affirming care.

The bill defines those procedures as “serious physical harm.”

“Parents would be charged with felonies and thrown in prison,” posted Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Florida House lawmaker and the state’s first LGBTQ+ Latino legislator. “This is fascist.”

SB 254 would also require…

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