A Florida mom has promised to go ‘to the end of the Earth’ to get her trans daughter care. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
A tearful Florida mum declared that she would go “to the end of the Earth” to get appropriate care for her trans daughter.
Her pledge was part of testimony given at a federal court hearing on Wednesday (13 December) to decide whether or not Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors should take effect.
In 2023, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis introduced several anti-trans bills, from banning school employees from asking students for their pronouns to blocking trans people from accessing the correct public toilets and changing rooms.
In May, the Republican presidential candidate signed a bill that made it illegal for doctors to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, marking one of the most extremely transphobic bills in the US.
The bill, which was widely criticised by medical professionals and human rights organisations, denies trans minors access to life-saving care that has repeatedly been proven to reduce suicide rates.
DeSantis’s plague of anti-LGBTQ+ laws has been so intense that it has sparked “mass migration” out of Florida.
For now, DeSantis’s bill banning trans minors from accessing gender-affirming care has been temporarily blocked pending the outcome of this week’s federal court trial.
Among those who testified was a mother, identified as Jane Doe to protect her daughter’s identity, who spoke candidly about how this ban would see her family “torn apart,” ABC News reports.
Through tears, the mum explained how her daughter transformed from an anxious and upset child to a thriving straight-A student after she was allowed to live as a girl.
It was a decision that she and her husband had made eight years ago after multiple visits to their family daughter.
But, she explained, if Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors goes through, she will have to consider moving away with her daughter, and leave her Navy officer husband behind.
“I will go to the end of the Earth to get my daughter the help she needs,” she said while pulling tissues from a box.
“I think about, will our family get torn apart? Will we have to live somewhere else away from my husband?”
Elsewhere in the trial, lawyer Mohammed Jazil, who is representing the state of Florida, testified that this law would protect people.
Jazil alleged in his argument that some people who have decided to “detransition” have caused “permanent damage” to their bodies with the gender-affirming treatment they received.
The argument contradicts numerous studies that have proven, time and time again, that young people who come out as trans are who they say they are.
The trial is expected to last five days before a decision is made on the ban.