Underwear Thrown at Florida GOP Lawmakers in Response to Anti-Trans Bills
Florida’s House of Representatives passed three anti-transgender bills on Wednesday, one of which could put parents’ custody of their trans kids in jeopardy.
While one of the bills, S.B. 254, was being debated on Tuesday, protestors and demonstrators responded in the most hilarious way. Trans adults and children in the legislative gallery pelted Florida House Republicans with underwear in response to the invasive and grotesque bill. The underwear fell on the desks and heads of the Republican lawmakers with slogans like “leave my genitals alone” and “fascism has no place in Florida/Stop trans genocide” written on them.
Video below posted to TikTok courtesy of @smythology.
@smythology #protest #tallahassee #florida #transrights #transrightsarehumanrights #lgbt
Parents and guardians who were present in the gallery with their trans and nonbinary kids were apparently separated from the children following the incident, with the youngest only being 12 years old. TikTok user and trans activist Kyle, (@bananabreadmuff1n), was present outside the gallery filming a livestream. A clip from the livestream shows two men blocking the doors to the gallery as parents chant “Let them go!” and “kidnappers!”
It was later revealed that the protesters were detained following the underwear stunt, with the parents apparently being escorted out of the gallery where their children remained. The children and parents were reunited, and one adult protestor was arrested.
Bill S.B. 254 would make it illegal for doctors in Florida to provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth. It would also allow the state’s courts to modify custody agreements, redefining “serious physical harm” to a child to include gender-affirming healthcare.
The version of the bill that was passed by the state senate earlier this month also would allow the state to take “temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child present in the state if the child is subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care. However, the version of bill S.B. 254 passed by the Florida House on Wednesday no longer included the “temporary emergency jurisdiction” language.
An amended version of S.B 254 goes back to the senate for a vote and then to Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s desk, who will most likely sign this disgusting bill into law.
Photo courtesy of social media
