Following a presidential executive order that reignited public controversy about transgender people, Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini announced Thursday he will again try to criminalize gender-altering surgery and medical treatments performed on minors who want it, even when their parents approve.
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His effort to do so in 2020 gained no traction.
This year, Sabatini, Republican from Lake County, said he also wants to specify in state law that only people who are born female based on a medical definition may compete in girls-only sports, he announced on Twitter.
“Both women’s sports and our children must be protected from radical social experimentation,” Sabatini tweeted.
Critics of Sabatini’s bill last year called it the “most offensive and direct attack” on gay rights of the 2020 legislative session. They said it is neither radical nor experimental for a licensed doctor to render safe medical care sought by a minor.
“Transgender youth are some of the most at-risk in our community. It is outrageous that conservative legislators would threaten their health and safety,” Gina Duncan, Equality Florida’s director for transgender equality, told the Phoenix then.
President Joe Biden’s executive order of Jan. 20 reflects a Supreme Court ruling issued on June 15 declaring that laws prohibiting sex discrimination cover “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.”
“It is the policy of my Administration to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and to fully enforce Title VII and other laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” the executive order says, in part.
Critics question if the order may un-level the playing fields of women’s sports protected under federal Title IX laws by allowing gender-reassigned females formerly considered male to compete with athletes who have always been considered females.
“Should biological boys be allowed to compete against girls in the name of inclusion? People across the political spectrum have agreed: they should not,” says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which describes itself as a research and education organization that promotes issues “from a biblical worldview.”
On the group’s website, Perkins describes President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as “people who will do anything to tear down the walls of science, morality, and human history if they have the chance.”
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Sabatini raised his state profile last year when he filed numerous failed lawsuits in Florida attempting to strike down local face-mask mandates in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, calling elected officials who approved the mandates “mask nazis” and “local government mafia.” None succeeded, and he drew criticism from a circuit judge who said the series of filings border on being frivolous lawsuits.
Two Florida Democratic lawmakers in December called for his resignation after he tweeted “Kyle Rittenhouse for Congress,” referring to an Illinois teenager charged with fatally shooting two people and wounding a third in August during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisc., after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back seven times by police.
–Laura Cassels, Florida Phoenix
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EVA says
We must do a better job of exposing these unbalanced people *before* they get elected. Spending energy on a polarizing issue for the sake of personal notoriety is pathetic. And his hateful prejudice is staggering. Let’s work to find better quality humans for our elected representatives!
Lisa Johnson says
MAN IS A MAN AND WOMEN IS A WOMEN. they are only two genders.
Deborah Coffey says
Make Republicans pay. Get them ALL out of our lives in every way.
Pogo says
@tiny tony sabatini is a commissioned officer in the Florida Army National Guard
How in hell is it possible for a hair-on-fire fascist to also be a commissioned officer in the Florida Army National Guard?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduct_unbecoming
Elected to public office in Florida…
https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Wake up. Vote as if your life is at stake – it is.
BMW says
Allowing MALES to compete in FEMALE sports will only serve to hurt under served and minority women. Through the vision of the Kennedy ladies via Title IX, females have been afforded opportunities for college athletic scholarships like no other time in American history. The left likes to lean on science when convenient, for the exception of human biology. Studies have proven males out perform females even after a year of transitioning hormone treatment. Under no circumstance should the plight of a transgender be minimized, but allowing them to take over female sports is not the answer. We have para, deaf, blind, amateur, professional and special sport categories to level playing fields. It should not be out of the realm to include a Trans league. Google trans in female high school track and field and look at the Trans who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the female state track tournament in Connecticut. Better yet, Youtube transgender CeCe Telfer the Woman’s 2019 NCAA 400 hurdle winner at 6 foot 2 inches tall. The photos and video footage speak louder than words as the upper body, leg size and strength reflect two different biological species. This should not be an emotional or political topic, but one based in science, fairness and most of all for the protection of Women’s Rights. Especially minorities and the under served.
Make it stop says
What an outrage! A boy cannot compete in girls sports and parents not able to approve their children destroying their lives forever? I am appalled!
I am an older millennial and I swear if generations keep getting softer we won’t survive as a nation much longer.
What an absolute joke.
Dennis says
Transgender children are mentally ill in the opinion of many people.
Steve says
As the backwardization of the GOP continues to me a last gasp of desperation to protect an antiquated mindset set in the concrete and bedrock of the Old South etc. Doomed to be overcome by the 21st Century the next Elections across the Country will be the mandates for The State of Union. Do I like or understand all this no. To me its the way of the World and those Minority Parties and members will be on the sidelines reduced to agitating the direction of Society IMO
Outsider says
Children’s brains don’t fully develop until their 20’s and should not be given authority to make life altering decisions before they have the maturity to understand the significance and irreversible nature of them. As far as males playing female sports that is totally wrong! There are currently 300 high school male sprinters who can beat the fastest woman sprinter in the world. It is totally unfair and as a father, yes I can call myself a father of a female athletic scholarship recipient I can say with certainty it would devastate women’s chances to play collegiate sports. Since the left is so fond of identity politics maybe they should organize a transgender Olympics.
LetThemEatCake says
Republicans, keep your words and rules away from bodies that do not belong to you. You won’t wear masks because it’s your body, your choice, right. What gives you the moral majority to tell or police people and their lives anymore. You never had that privilege. You co-opt policies and beliefs that keep people divided. I’m over this hypocritical BS. Stop telling women what to do regarding abortion, her body and her choice. Stop policing what people do with their own lives, their body and their choice. Keep out of people bedrooms. Stay out of their houses. Ever notice how it’s the party of limited government that wants government control over other’s life decisions? But when you ask them to respect others, they put a gun in your face. Classy.
Edith Campins says
I will never understand the Republican obsession with the choices people make about their own bodies. They are ok with insurrection and a police officer dying but heaven forbid someone decide to do something, on their own dime, to their bodies. The horror.
Mary Fusco says
The fact is that we are ALL born either male or female There is NOTHING in between. Bottom line is that a male can take hormones and grow breasts but he will never be a woman. A female can take hormones to stop her female growth but she will never be a male. What a person is born as, they will die as. DNA does not lie. The rest is a fantasy and essentially a mental illness. BTW, I would assume that if your daughter or granddaughter was competing for a college sports scholarship and lost out because a male pretending to be a female got it you would be okay with it?
Underwhelmed says
What a hodgepodge of issues. Where did Laura Cassels learn how to be a journalist? How about discussing the issues instead of series of disconnected quotes? Flagler Live, do better.
Kalib says
Thank god someone is standing up for this absurdity. The decision to change one’s sex should not be made until one is an adult. A child can’t even decide what they want to eat let alone what sex they want to be.
And men should not compete in women’s sports, period. There are genetic differences between the sexes and surgery and pills can’t change it.
The media, social media and politicians are screwing the country up bad, irreparable damage.
Bill says
Sounds like a reasonable Law to have in place.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
This world has gone mad! I want to be a dachsie – (dachshund) – I will get all the love I want – and never have to worry about anything.. My second choice is a chiweenie. Whatever is easier for the doc is okay with me…..