DeSantis inquires into gender dysphoria services at public universities

By Eric Daugherty

Published Jan. 19, 2023, 11:40 a.m. ET | Updated Jan. 19, 2023

Governor Ron DeSantis speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida (Gage Skidmore).

TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – In a Jan. 11 letter, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration asked the State University Board of Trustees to provide information on “services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria.”

Chris Spencer, director of the Office of Policy and Budget, made the request on behalf of DeSantis.

“Our office has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria. On behalf of the Governor, I hereby request that you respond to the enclosed inquiries related to such services,” Spencer said.

Some of the requested topics include:

“The number of first-time encounters for sex- reassignment treatment or where such treatment was sought.”
“The number of individuals diagnosed under ICD-10 Code F64 [gender identity disorders].”
The amount of students put on puberty blockers, hormones hormone antagonists.
Data on how many students underwent mastectomies, breast augmentations, and other medical procedures.

DeSantis also requested insight into of those who did receive “sex reassignment treatment,” how many:

Did not receive behavioral health services prior?
How many received less than three months, less than six months, less than one year, and one year or more of behavior health services?

The letter asks for “all policies and procedures regarding sex-reassignment treatment in effect” from Jan. 1, 2018, to present-day, “including any draft policies and procedures.”

Read the full letter here.

The move comes after the governor requested information on Critical Race Theory spending at public universities early in January.

“We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups, and we must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology,” DeSantis said at his second inaugural address.

“Like DEI and CRT, radical gender ideology has supplanted academics at many institutions of higher education,” Press Secretary Bryan Griffin said. “We are committed to fully understanding the amount of public funding that is going toward such non-academic pursuits to best assess how to get our colleges and universities refocused on education and truth.”

A court ruled in favor of DeSantis requesting those types of documents, which Education Secretary Manny Diaz Jr. said “vindicates” him.

“Yesterday’s federal court ruling vindicated Governor DeSantis’ request for transparency at Florida’s publicly funded state colleges and universities,” Diaz said. “The citizens of Florida deserve to know about the programs and campus activities their tax dollars are funding at these institutions on Critical Race Theory and other ideologies that teach students to hate each other and put race, not character, at the center of moral and historical discussion.”