Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a slate of bills on Wednesday to “Let Kids Be Kids.”
The newly signed bills ban sex change drugs and surgeries for minors, require people to use public restrooms matching their biological sex, expand the Parental Rights in Education laws to limit teachers discussing sexual orientation and “gender identity,” and place additional rules on drag performances.
While signing the bills in Tampa, DeSantis said that the state is “going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy, and kids should have an upbringing that reflects that.”
Florida Will Let Kids Be Kids https://t.co/nSGOu40v1o
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 17, 2023
While discussing the bills, DeSantis stood at a lectern featuring a sign that read “Let Kids Be Kids.”
Senate Bill 254 bans children from accessing puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or sex change surgeries. It will allow the state to take custody of a minor who “has been subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.” The legislation also allows people given sex change prescriptions or surgeries to sue their healthcare providers.
With my signature, Florida permanently prohibits genital mutilating surgical procedures and experimental puberty blockers for minors.
Minors given these procedures without their consent will now be able to recover damages for permanent injury or death caused by these medical… pic.twitter.com/yedpRgowPP
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 17, 2023
DeSantis also signed House Bill 1069, expanding the already existing Parental Rights in Education law. Under the update, educators are prohibited from teaching students about sexual orientation or “gender identity” from pre-K through the eighth grade. It additionally requires teachers to promote abstaining from sex outside of marriage and “the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.”
The new legislation states that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.” As such, public schools are now prohibited from passing policies requiring people to use a transgender person’s chosen pronouns.
These laws will go into effect in July, meaning they will be in place for the next school year.
“We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something? They’re having third graders declare pronouns? We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida,” DeSantis said.
Florida students and teachers will no longer have to “declare” their pronouns in school or be forced to use pronouns not based on biological sex.
Our teachers will focus on what matters — reading, writing, and arithmetic. pic.twitter.com/XviQB23lLF
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 17, 2023
A third bill, House Bill 1438, bans minors from all “adult live performances,” including drag shows. This law went into effect immediately upon being signed by DeSantis.
The fourth bill, House Bill 1521, will require people to use public restrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex that was observed at birth.
“A woman should not be in a locker room, having to worry about someone from the opposite sex being in their locker room,” DeSantis said.
The legislation defines a woman as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs” and a man as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”
