Judge: DeSantis spread false information while pushing trans health care ban, restrictions

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge hearing a challenge to a transgender health care ban for minors and restrictions for adults noted that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spread false information about doctors mutilating children’s genitals. Judge Robert Hinkle said during the last day of the trial that DeSantis repeated his comments even though there’s been no such documented cases of doctors castrating or mutilating children’s genitals. Hinkle said he will rule sometime after the holidays on whether DeSantis, the Legislature and the Department of Health deliberately targeted transgender people with the new law or whether the law simply imposed reasonable restrictions to protect the public.