TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A bill requiring a person identifies on their drivers license by their biological sex rather than their gender passed its first committee assignment on Monday.
The legislation also requires Health care insurers provide a de-transition treatment option for people who have participated in sex-reassignment surgery.
Rep. Douglas Bankson, R-Apopka, is the bill’s sponsor.
Bankson’s legislation was met with public comments by progressive activists who claim the bill was advocating for a “trans genocide.”
The House Select Committee on Health Innovation passed the bill.
HB 1639 also has a comparable bill filed by Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, commonly known as the “What is a Woman Act.”
The committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange, that specifically defined the term “sex” as either male or female, as defined by a persons sex chromosomes.
“Everyone in this room is valuable, everyone in this room is important,” Bankson said. “We obviously don’t all agree in many different ways. Every child is important. Every child in the womb is important.”
“For me, this is not something that is denying or removing coverage and help for those with whom I might disagree, and they would disagree with me. But I believe they have a right to be able to seek help for themselves,” he added.”
Several activists and lobbyists for progressive organizations spoke out against the bill, arguing it was an attack on transgender rights.
Quinn Diaz from Equality Florida, a self-described transgender individual, explained the fears of “cruelty and discrimination” that those who have transitioned face.
“This legislature has worked hard over the last three sessions to substantiate those fears,” Diaz said.
Another person who said they were transgender, representing Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, argued that the legislation was being used to create a registry of LGBTQ people so that the state could go “mask off” and try to “eradicate” transgenders.
Other members speaking on behalf of the left wing organization continuously referred to the bill creating a registry aiding in the “trans genocide.”
Additionally, Jackson Oberlink from Florida Rising agued that the bill was put forth my “Christo-fascists” seeking to push a “Christian nationalist” agenda.
Certain Members of the public also agreed with the bill and its efforts, such as John Labriola with the Christian Family Coalition.
“What you’re really doing here is, this is a suicide prevention bill,” Labriola said. “Because regardless of what the other side has thrown out, that supposedly allowing people to mutilate their bodies at a young age is preventing suicide, these studies actually show more and more that the opposite is the case.”
Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Hudson defended the bill, congratulating Bankson on his willingness to take up the legislation even with the activist opposition.
“I commend you for taking this up,” Steele said. “It’s not an easy bill, you have a lot of people that are going to oppose it.”
He also reaffirmed that the bill is not going to be a “registry to hate” and he didn’t like how members of the public were shaping it that way.
Rep. Michelle Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, emphasized that the bill is going to “harm” people in the transgender community.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, added to Rayner’s comments, arguing that the legislation was “innately partisan” with the intention to divide communities.
