LGBTQ+ people protest in Florida over Republican conversion therapy bill

Source: The Guardian

LGBTQ+ people protest in Florida over Republican conversion therapy bill

Bill mandates insurance carriers cover discredited practice and would force people to list sex assigned at birth on driver’s licenses

Ava Sasani
Wed 28 Feb 2024 18.32 GMT
Last modified on Wed 28 Feb 2024 18.48 GMT

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ people gathered on the steps of the Florida state house on Wednesday to protest against a first-in-the-nation bill that critics say would raise health insurance costs for all state residents.

The Republican-backed proposal, house bill 1639, mandates that insurance carriers cover conversion therapy, a scientifically discredited practice whose practitioners falsely claim to be able to change the sexual orientation or identity of LGBTQ+ people.

“We hope that legislators wouldn’t vote for a health insurance mandate that would increase everyone’s costs as a way to just demonize LGBT people,” said Quinn Diaz, public policy associate for Equality Florida. “But we really don’t have any faith in this state government, at this point.”

Diaz said the proposed legislation would also force trans people to “out themselves” on state-issued identification cards, requiring Florida residents to list the sex they were assigned at birth on their driver’s licenses.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/lgbtq-florida-protest-conversion-therapy-bill