DeSantis asks the University of Florida for information on transgender healthcare

TALLAHASSEE, Florida. — Continuing to focus on treating transgender people, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is requiring public universities to provide information for the past five years on the services they have provided to people with gender dysphoria, according to documents released Wednesday.

Chris Spencer, director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, sent out a memo last week demanding that universities respond to a long list of questions about concerns, including the number of people who were seeking “sex reassignment treatment,” the number of people prescribing such things, like hormones. and puberty blockers, as well as the number of people who have had surgery such as mastectomy.

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It also looks for a breakdown of information by age. Responses must be received by February 10th.

The memo and accompanying document did not specify what the DeSantis administration would do with information dated January 1, 2018. But over the past year, the administration has taken a number of steps to restrict treatment for transgender people, including a ban on Medicaid. coverage of treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex reassignment surgery.

DeSantis, seen by many as a potential 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has also targeted what he called “fashion ideology” in colleges and universities. For example, Spencer released a memorandum on December 28 that required colleges and universities to provide a “comprehensive list of all employees, programs, and activities on campus related to diversity, equality, and inclusion, and critical race theory.”

A memo last week said the governor’s office “has become aware that several public universities are providing services to individuals with gender dysphoria.” The federal government defines gender dysphoria as clinically “a significant disorder that a person may experience when the sex or sex assigned at birth does not match their personality.”

The accompanying document included a list of the requested information and was written quite broadly. Apparently, he was not limited to information about the services provided to students and staff of the university. It is unclear whether this may refer to the services provided to the general public by university faculty.

UF Health of the University of Florida, for example, states on its website that “UF Health is committed to improving the health and well-being of transgender and non-binary people in the communities we serve.”

“At UF Health, we are committed to providing compassionate, evidence-based care to our patients in the transgender and gender non-binary communities,” the website says. “Our interdisciplinary approach allows our patients to work with their physician to develop a treatment plan that is tailored to their specific needs. We are committed to providing comprehensive primary care, hormone management, behavioral health, surgical services and more.”

Similarly, the USF Health of the University of South Florida states on its website, “We provide specialized services for people who are going through the gender affirmation stages. As an academic medical center, we take a multidisciplinary approach to providing comprehensive care to the transgender community.”

The document that accompanied Spencer’s memo stated that the universities “provide all information or data on all persons, including those under the age of 18 at the time of any contact or treatment, as the case may be.”

The memo also clearly states that universities should not provide information that could identify patients.

“Please ensure that all responses do not contain personally identifiable information or protected health information and are provided in an aggregated and de-identified format,” the memorandum reads.

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