{"id":130012,"date":"2026-01-24T03:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130012\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T03:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:56:15","slug":"florida-seeks-to-expand-gender-affirming-care-ban-could-criminalize-pharmacists-and-counselors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130012\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida seeks to expand gender-affirming care ban; could criminalize pharmacists and counselors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> legislators have introduced bills that would expand the state\u2019s ban on gender-affirming care<\/a> for trans<\/a> youth, including felony charges for any health care provider who \u201caids or abets\u201d such procedures.<\/p>\n

LGBTQ+ activists and parents warn that this provision is dangerously vague and would penalize counselors who discuss gender issues with young people or pharmacists who fill prescriptions \u2014 something that sponsors of the bills have confirmed, to a degree.<\/p>\n

House Bill 743<\/a> and Senate Bill 1010<\/a> would also authorize the attorney general to investigate and sue health care professionals who violate the law restricting gender-affirming care. Both were voted out of committee this week.<\/p>\n

The law, enacted in 2023,<\/a> already provided for felony charges against doctors who offer gender-affirming procedures to trans minors.<\/p>\n

Related: What is gender-affirming care, who uses it, and do they regret it?<\/a><\/p>\n

The bills\u2019 lead sponsors, both Republicans, have claimed \u201cbad actors\u201d are trying to get around the law. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is there\u2019s coding that\u2019s actually being used that is becoming the problem, and hundreds of thousands of dollars is spent per child for them to transition, and codes are being misrepresented where they are saying that it\u2019s an indoctrination disorder instead of saying it\u2019s a gender identity disorder,\u201d Rep. Lauren Melo, the House bill\u2019s sponsor, said at a hearing Tuesday, according to Florida Politics<\/a>. Melo confirmed that if the bill becomes law, it could potentially mean charges against pharmacists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent of this bill is to continue to protect the children of Florida and hold bad actors accountable,\u201d Sen. Clay Yarborough said at his chamber\u2019s committee hearing that day, the Florida Phoenix<\/a> reports. Yarborough was the force behind the ban enacted in 2023.<\/p>\n

At a press conference Wednesday, Stratton Pollitzer, executive director of Equality Florida<\/a>, called these bills \u201cmore lawsuits for teachers and doctors\u201d legislation. \u201cThe vague and dangerous language \u2026 would expand the state\u2019s power to investigate health care professionals, counselors, and even teachers who support transgender young people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese bills are smoke bombs \u2014 meant to distract Floridians from the complete failure of [Gov.] Ron DeSantis<\/a> and his allies to address the real crises Floridians are facing: lack of affordability, a housing emergency, and skyrocketing insurance costs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director at Equality Florida, told The Advocate Friday that the bills are “an alarming escalation of existing attacks on gender-affirming care.” He noted that they “could expose even mental health therapists to criminal liability,” which the legislature has never done, and expose pharmacists to this liability as well.<\/p>\n

“We see that a small group of extremists continue to double down on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation” and “fail to address issues of concern to everyday Floridians,” he added.<\/p>\n

Savannah Thompson, a behavioral health therapist, expressed concern in an interview with public radio station WFSU<\/a>. \u201cThis could increase the feelings of fear from my clients who are under 18, but it also can increase the likelihood that these professionals won\u2019t be able to talk with their clients honestly and openly to give them the care and the support that they deserve and need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some legislators said these bills would put too much power in the attorney general\u2019s hands. \u201cNo disrespect to the folks who are here about gender-affirming care, but that\u2019s not what this bill is about,\u201d Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore said at the hearing on the House version, Florida Politics reports. \u201cIt is about giving one individual and maybe his successors authority that they don\u2019t deserve and they cannot manage. They\u2019ve proven that they cannot be trusted. This is a terrible bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current attorney general, James Uthmeier, was appointed by DeSantis in February to fill the vacancy created when the governor appointed Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, succeeding Marco Rubio, who is now U.S. secretary of state. Uthmeier, formerly DeSantis\u2019s chief of staff, has taken many far-right positions, including anti-LGBTQ+ stances. Critics have accused Uthmeier of misappropriating funds from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes when he was chief of staff. He has said he did nothing illegal.<\/p>\n

Related: Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care<\/a><\/p>\n

The bills expanding the gender-affirming care ban, which has been the subject of lawsuits but is in force for now,<\/a> are just part of a slate of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation pending in Florida. The others include HB 641\/SB 164, dubbed the \u201cdon\u2019t say gay or trans at work\u201d bills by Equality Florida. This legislation would protect people who intentionally misgender coworkers, bar job seekers from identifying as trans or nonbinary on job applications, and block LGBTQ-inclusive cultural competency training in certain workplaces, Equality Florida reports.<\/p>\n

HB 347\/SB 426 would ban the display of flags regarding \u201cpolitical ideology, race, gender, or sexual orientation\u201d from government buildings. \u201cThe terms are so broad that they ban even rainbow imagery on posters, coffee cups, and lapel pins,\u201d Equality Florida notes. \u201cThis is blatant censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also bills pending that would make it easier to challenge and remove books from schools (particularly targeting books with LGBTQ+ or race-related content), make sex education opt-in only, bar school districts from using state or federal funds for programs or activities deemed \u201cpolitical or social activism,\u201d make it harder to access assisted reproduction, restrict minors’ access to contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and more. The full list of harmful bills in addition to some positive ones is on Equality Florida’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

At the press conference, Pollitzer expressed hope for a repeat of last year in the legislature, when several anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced but did not pass. We hope that with real challenges facing everyday Floridians, lawmakers will again refuse to prioritize DeSantis\u2019s agenda of more censorship, surveillance, and government control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Advocate: Florida seeks to expand gender-affirming care ban; could criminalize pharmacists and counselors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida legislators have introduced bills that would expand the state\u2019s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5888,56912,3037,28,30,29,4833,64106,64107,64105,13072,64108],"class_list":{"0":"post-130012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-clay-yarborough","9":"tag-equality-florida","10":"tag-felony-charges","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-florida-politics","15":"tag-gender-identity-disorder","16":"tag-gender-issues","17":"tag-health-care-professionals","18":"tag-health-care-provider","19":"tag-pharmacists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}