Four Simple Words For The Bigots And Haters: "Gender Identity Is Real"

Inflicting pain and suffering upon children and their parents is a damned poor basis for public policy, don'tchathink?

I don’t know who needs to hear this or how many times it needs to be said before it needs to sink in, but I’ll say it again: Trans girls are girls. Trans boys are boys. Trans people ARE people.

Pretty simple, eh? That’s not to say that you have to agree with that or even accept it…but you don’t get to change it. You also don’t get to determine what a parent with a transgender child can or cannot do for that child. So if a parent has accepted that their child is transgender and loves them enough to stand by them and do right by them, no one who ISN’T their parent should be able to stop them.

Period. End of story. No, you don’t get to ask questions. Shut up and move on. Capice??

And now a federal judge in Floriduh has stepped in to partially strike down Gov. Ron DeSantis’ law banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors. It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to neuter the tide of hatred and bigotry currently washing over this country.

In an eviscerating ruling condemning anti-trans bigotry, a federal judge has partially struck down Florida’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle lays out the basis for his decision in four words: “Gender identity is real.”

Hinkle’s written decision is a masterclass in shutting down the hateful anti-trans rhetoric coming from “anti-woke” right-wing Governor Ron “Kinky White Jackboots” DeSantis.

DeathSantis recently signed a bill that effectively banned all gender-affirming care for trans youth in Florida.

The argument against the ban is based on false information and a lack of credible medical data, backstopped by fear, hatred, bigotry, and a lack of understanding. The judge’s assertion that he knows what the Governor is up to doesn’t make him an intellectual and moral titan, but he should be given credit for doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Pandering to bigotry, willful ignorance, homophobia, and transphobia is a damned poor foundation for public policy.

There’s never been any real doubt that Gov. DeSantis promulgated the ban as throwing raw meat to the GOP base. It’s never been about protecting children. It’s always been about protecting his right flank.

The Don’t Say Gay Governor’s hateful policies ending trans healthcare weren’t advanced through the state legislature but instead handed down directly by his administration.

The judge’s decision is in response to a lawsuit filed against science-denying State Surgeon General Joseph “Just Say No to All Medical Truths” Ladapo by four Florida families with transgender children.

That lawsuit argued the state of Florida “could not demonstrate any rational basis, much less an important or compelling one, for the transgender medical bans which prevent transgender adolescents from getting safe and effective medically necessary healthcare.”

That medically necessary healthcare includes their children’s access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy, which had been discontinued by Governor Gitmo’s arbitrary ban.

The ban on gender-affirming care took the decision out of the hands of parents- who know their children best- and put it in the hands of the state. Of course, if Democrats were to do something like this (of course, why would they?), the weeping and gnashing of teeth from Republicans would be furious and instantaneous.

I find it interesting that The Party of Small Government © has made this move, along with so many others, that consolidates power in their hands and takes it from local municipalities and, in this case, parents. It’s almost as if fascism and autocracy are the endgames and that anything done to bring DeSantis and the GOP closer to that goal is acceptable.

So, if a few parents and their transgender kids have to be deprived of some human rights…meh, who cares, right?

Thankfully, at least one federal judge has poked a few holes in that strategy.

The truth is that there’s no rational or compelling basis to deny gender-affirming care to minors. There is, of course, a political basis for doing so- that would be the cruelty that has come to define today’s GOP, something Ron DeSantis neither admits nor denies but certainly makes no apologies for.

Because when all is said and done, Ron DeSantis and the GOP don’t give a damn about the well-being of children. They care only about how they can manipulate the issues surrounding transgender minors to score political points, which accounts for the statute and rules that were struck down.

“The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset,” the judge writes.

“Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear. The medical defendants, speaking through their attorneys, have admitted it.”

Indeed. Neither Gov. DeSantis nor his barely competent State Surgeon General can deny that gender identity is real. Nor can they argue that a minor child cannot identify as transgender. So they’re left with ideology, religion, propaganda, and prejudice- all damned poor arguments for making policies that directly impact the lives and well-being of transgender minors.

(No, that’s not Gov. DeSantis’ motto…but it probably should be.)

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be controls and regulations regarding providing minors gender-affirming care. But such boundaries should be based on common sense and medical reality. They also should take into account the needs of the child and the concerns of the parents. No one-size-fits-all state-mandated set of rules and regulations will fit every situation and every child.

Most of the decisions should be left to parents and medical professionals. When politicians (who often have little knowledge of the issues or medical realities involved) decide it’s their place to make decisions for parents and children, nothing good comes of it.

The judge’s order also slams Florida’s unproven claims regarding “transition regret” and false statements that the state joined an “international consensus” against affirming healthcare.

“This assertion is false. No matter how many times the defendants say it, it will still be false,” Judge Hinkle wrote. “No country in Europe entirely bans these treatments.”

But the real killer comes when the judge is all I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE REALLY DOING.

“Any proponent of the challenged statute and rules should put up or shut up: do you acknowledge that there are individuals with actual gender identities opposite their natal sex, or do you not? Dog whistles ought not to be tolerated.”

It can’t be about politics. It shouldn’t be about ideology. And it mustn’t be about throwing red meat to the GOP base. This is about children, and a child's mental and physical health and well-being should ALWAYS take precedence over political considerations.

Except when it doesn’t, which is usually the case in Floriduh, where NOTHING takes precedence over the political interests of Ron DeSantis.

Thankfully, we have a court system to provide checks and balances against the self-interested excess of demagogues like the Floriduh governor.

No compassionate leader would think he knows better than medical professionals or parents. Then again, no one’s ever accused Gov. DeSantis of possessing anything approaching compassion.

Remember, Trans girls are girls. Trans boys are boys. Trans people ARE people. And they deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity you expect others to show you. Period.

If anything, trans boys and girls deserve extra TLC because the journey they’re undertaking is a difficult and painful one. They will be hated, feared, treated shabbily, disrespected, and suspected of all manner of things, both untrue and unfair. It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s the life they must look forward to.

Governments and politicians shouldn’t conspire to make their lives even more challenging and unpleasant. There should be a special place in Hell for those who’d used transgender children to burnish their political star.

Frankly, I can think of few things more appropriate and deserved than slathering a naked Ron DeSantis in honey and staking him to a fire ant hill in a remote part of West Texas. It wouldn’t begin to compensate for the suffering and heartbreak he’s caused his non-White Conservative Christian heterosexual constituents, but it would be a good start.

Yeah, karma can be a bitch, but schadenfreude sure can be sweet, eh?