DeSantis signs flurry of anti-trans bills, including ban on gender-affirming care for minors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several anti-transgender bills Wednesday which ban gender-affirming care for minors, ban children from attending drag shows, and target how students learn about and engage with the LGBTQ+ community. 

Senate Bill 254 outlaws gender transition surgeries and medication, such as puberty blockers, for minors. It also makes it a first-degree misdemeanor for physicians and health care workers to provide gender-affirming medication or conduct these surgeries, and gives state courts the ability to obtain a warrant to take physical custody of a child who is "being subjected to sex-reassignement prescriptions or procedures."

DeSantis also signed an expansion of the Parental Rights in Education bill, which prohibits the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill, initially signed into law in March 2022, applied to students in third grade and under. But with the expansion, it now applies to those in eighth grade and under.