© Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal/APFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo told the Florida Board of Medicine in a letter obtained by NBC News that his office found the science supporting these therapies "extraordinarily weak."
"Available medical literature provides insufficient evidence that sex reassignment through medical interventions is a safe and effective treatment for gender dysphoria," the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration wrote.
Ladapo asked the board to review the agency's findings to inform its establishment of a standard of care for transgender minors, emphasizing that surgical and hormonal therapies are "complex and irreversible."
The same day, the Agency for Health Care Administration released a report denying Medicaid coverage for puberty blockers, hormone therapies or transgender-related surgeries. The agency referred to these procedures as "experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long term affects."
Transgender health care has become a contentious topic, particularly in red states.
Texas's Supreme Court ruled weeks ago that parents in the state could be investigated for the transition-related therapies they provide to their children.
Meanwhile, Alabama passed a law in early May that criminalized hormone therapy and other transition-related therapies for minors who identify as transgender.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a bill in early May to block transgender people from playing on sports teams corresponding to their gender identities.
DeSantis, a rising conservative star with possible 2024 White House ambitions, has taken a number of actions against transition-related therapies in the months leading up to his run for reelection in November.
Ladapo in the letter wrote:
"The current standards set by numerous professional organizations appear to follow a preferred political ideology instead of the highest level of generally accepted medical science. Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine."Transgender advocacy organizations like the Human Rights Campaign have criticized the Florida Department of Health's research as inaccurate. The organization wrote:
"During a time when people should be turning to their state health departments for meaningful, science-driven advice, Florida's Department of Health and Gov. Ron DeSantis have used it as a mouthpiece for dangerous disinformation. The truth still matters and the evidence is clear: denying trans youth the ability to transition is dangerous, abusive, and life-threatening."
Then we have the last 10 to 15 years where we've seen a literal explosion of what has been loosely and offhandedly been characterized as the Real Deal.
So the truth does matter, and the truth is that CGI does exist, it manifests only rarely and in the present day no one really knows what is happening with all these kids; and cereal box psychology is useless at best and a slippery slope to grievous harm at worst.