Florida Dept. of Health Press Sec. Mocks CBS Orlando for Calling Puberty Blockers ‘Gender Affirming Care’
August 1, 2022 Updated 10:41 A.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for the Florida Department of Health, says he exhibited a “short class on dealing with media activists” when repeatedly asked about “gender affirming care.”
The press secretary showed screenshots of media inquiries from CBS Orlando referencing the term “gender affirming care.”
“Hearing that FL DOH has released the proposed rule that would ban access to gender affirming care for people under the age of 18. Can you confirm? Do you have a press release you can share with us about this?,” they asked Redfern.
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘gender affirming care.’ Can you please define,” Redfern responded.
“‘HHS defines gender-affirming care as a supportive form of healthcare consisting of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.’ This is cited in footnote 3 of the petition to which I’m referring,” they said.
Redfern fired back: “By ‘gender affirming care,’ you mean puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and double mastectomies for young/teenaged girls, right?”
CBS Orlando avoided directly addressing Redfern’s request for clarification.
“I’m not sure what you are getting at by asking our assignment editor their personal opinion on the term ‘gender affirming care,'” they said. “Can you or someone else within the Florida Department of Health provide to us the document entitled ‘Petition to Initiate Rulemaking Setting the Standard of Care for Treatment of Gender Dysphoria’? If you can not — please explain why.”
“I’m asking why you referred to it as ‘gender affirming care’ instead of using an objective term such as ‘double mastectomies for children [with] gender dysphoria,'” Redfern replied. “Are you talking about the document that proposes restrictions on treating gender dysphoria with puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries such as double mastectomies on children? If so, I can easily point you in the right direction.”
CBS Orlando then claimed they did not use the term “gender affirming care,” to which Redfern replied, “Your news room’s use of the phrase is now public record.”
“The document that was inside of a document was available online the entire time. Thanks for playing, @news6wkmg,” Redfern tweeted.
