Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – Photo: Office of the Governor.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking state universities to provide the state with the number and ages of students who sought out gender-affirming care, including hormone prescriptions and gender confirmation surgery in a survey released on Wednesday.
The survey asks 12 state universities to provide the number of students or individuals who received gender-affirming treatments over the past five years, and how many students were diagnosed with gender identity disorders during that time period. It also asks how many of those cases were “first-time” visits for treatment and how many students were referred to other medical facilities for treatment. The survey says to protect students’ personal identities when completing the survey.
According to The Associated Press, the survey also requires a breakdown by age, regardless of whether the student is over age 18, of students who were prescribed hormones, hormone blockers, or surgical procedures such as mastectomies, breast augmentation, or genital surgery.
The survey is being sent to university board of trustee chairs by DeSantis’ budget director, Chris Spencer.
“Our office has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria,” Spencer wrote. “On behalf of the Governor, I hereby request that you respond to the enclosed inquiries related to such services.”
The governor’s office has not clarified what the purpose of the survey is, or what it will do with the data it collects from it. The survey must be completed by Feb. 10.
Specer told the board of trustee chairs that completing the survey is “part of their obligation to govern institutional resources and protect the public interest,” according to the AP.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa), the Minority Leader in the Florida House of Representatives, predicts that the information from the survey on transgender college students will be used to penalize universities that affirm students’ gender identities socially, those that provide gender-affirming treatments for transgender individuals, or even those who refer such patients to trans-affirming physicians outside of university health systems.
“We can see cuts in funding for universities to treat students with this condition, and I think an all-out elimination of services is certainly on the table,” Driskell told the AP.
The trans health survey is similar to one that the DeSantis administration has sent to state universities asking them to detail their spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or critical race theory programs.
The transgender health information survey was also released on the same day that Florida College System presidents voted to support the DeSantis administration’s ongoing campaign to rid educational institutions of so-called “woke” ideologies that conservatives claim seek to indoctrinate students and to combat so-called “cancel culture.”
In a news release, the FCS presidents promised to ensure that all classroom instruction, initiatives, and activities at their schools will not “promote any ideology that suppresses intellectual and academic freedom, freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and the pursuit of truth in teaching and learning.” They also promised to review and remove any instruction that embraces “woke” concepts, such as critical race theory and intersectionality, by Feb. 1.
DeSantis has cast himself as a champion of “parental rights” by attacking so-called “gender ideology” in schools, signing a “Parental Rights in Education” law — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics — that bars LGBTQ-related instruction in grades K-3 and requires that such topics only be addressed in older grades in a manner that is “age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate.” He also signed a bill making it easier for parents to challenge and request the removal of books with content they consider “inappropriate” from school classrooms or libraries.
The LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida called the governor’s demand for data on transgender students’ medical decisions “incredibly disturbing.”
“This is another example of DeSantis using his office to attempt to intimidate colleges and universities into becoming less inclusive of their students for his political gain,” Brandon Wolf, the press secretary for Equality Florida, told Politico in a statement. “Those institutions should continue providing affirming services for all students despite the governor’s attempts to intimidate them.”
The U.S. Department of Education has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college that required schools to follow an interpretation embraced by the Biden and Obama administrations extending sex-discrimination protections to transgender students.
The move marks the first known instance of the Trump administration terminating civil rights settlements previously negotiated with schools or school districts.
The five school districts -- Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, which serves Rehoboth Beach; Fife School District in Washington State; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California; and Sacramento City Unified School District -- along with Taft College in California's Central Valley, reached those agreements with past administrations following alleged incidents of discrimination involving transgender or nonbinary students.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill ensuring that some Floridians living with HIV can access three more months of life-saving antiretroviral medications through the state’s ADAP program.
ADAP, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, is a state-level initiative that helps low-income and uninsured people living with HIV access medications that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
Amid stagnant federal funding and rising health care costs, many states’ ADAP programs have faced shortfalls, prompting cuts or stricter income eligibility requirements that reduce the number of people who qualify.
The U.S. Department of Justice has launched investigations into three dozen Illinois school districts, alleging that they may have failed to allow parents to "opt out" of lessons involving LGBTQ content.
The investigations, announced last week by the department, will also examine whether 35 school districts and Chicago's largest charter school network allow transgender students to use bathrooms or participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity, rather than their assigned sex at birth.
In its news release, the Justice Department said it would determine whether the districts are adhering to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.
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