Devout Catholic Joe Biden, whose daughter wrote in her diary about him taking inappropriate showers with her, said in an interview with Comedy Central’s The Daily Show released Monday that state measures like the one in Florida protecting children from abusive transgender medical treatment are “cruel” and “close to sinful” and called for a federal law to be enacted to block those state laws.
Obama spoke with gay comic actor and former Obama White House staffer Kal Penn.
“…and transgender kids is a really harder thing. What’s going on in Florida is as my mother would say, ‘close to sinful’. I mean, it’s terrible what they’re doing. It’s not like you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I want to become a man’ or ‘I want to become a woman’ or ‘I want to change.’ I mean, what, what, what are they thinking about here? They’re human beings. They love. They have feelings. They have inclinations that are… I mean, it’s just, to me, is, I don’t know, it’s cruel. And the way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed with same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you’re breaking the law and you’re going to be held accountable.”
After Florida’s medical boards passed a ban on transgender medical treatment for children last November (which goes into effect March 16), Florida legislators have proposed several bills protecting children (Washington Post excerpt):
Florida legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program.
The half-dozen bills, filed by a cast of GOP state representatives and senators, come shortly before the launch of Florida’s legislative session Tuesday. Other proposals in the mix include eliminating college majors in gender studies, nixing diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, strengthening parents’ ability to veto K-12 class materials and extending a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality — from third grade up to eighth grade.
The legislation has already drawn protest from Democratic politicians, education associations, free speech groups and LGBTQ advocates, who say the bills will restrict educators’ ability to instruct children honestly, harm transgender and nonbinary students and strip funding from public schools.
CBS News reported earlier this month that Florida lawmakers have also proposed a law banning transgender treatment for children (excerpt):
Two House Republicans filed a proposal Friday that would make it illegal for doctors to provide treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors.
The bill (HB 1421), filed by House Health & Human Services Chairman Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, and Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, is the latest in a series of moves by lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration aimed at transgender people.
The Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine last month moved forward with rules that would prevent doctors from providing such treatments to minors.
But the bill would go further by placing a prohibition in state law — and requiring that doctors lose their licenses if they commit violations.
Also, the bill would make changes including preventing health insurers and HMOs from providing coverage for treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgery; barring state agencies, local governments, and colleges and universities from spending money on such treatments; and largely blocking people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates.
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