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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday new restrictions on discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in Florida schools, derided by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The measure drew criticism from the LGBTQ community nationwide, Hollywood and the White House, and even drew walkouts in schools across the state from students concerned about its potential impact. The legislation was ridiculed by hosts Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall during their opening comments at Sunday night’s 94th Academy Awards. (Kennedy, 3/28)

When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill Monday, which opponents deride as the “don’t say gay” bill, he repeated what he has been saying since the controversial bill first emerged in Florida: “Leftist politicians, activists and corporate media” are getting the intent of the bill all wrong. The text of the seven-page bill never mentions the word “gay.” Its vague provisions offer few details for how the ban on teacher-led instruction of gender and sexuality will be implemented in Florida’s public schools and yet both sides say they understand precisely what the intent is. (Klas, 3/29)

After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law on Monday, the Walt Disney Company condemned the legislation and vowed to help have it repealed. “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” the company said in a statement. “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.” (Whitten, 3/28)

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights organization, significantly lowered the ranking of two Dallas hospitals in its scoring system for health care inclusivity after the facilities halted medical treatment for new adolescent transgender patients. Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center are now the two lowest scoring hospitals in Texas in the biennial Healthcare Equality Index 2022, published Monday. HRC said it applied the “responsible citizenship criteria” penalties because the hospitals stopped providing “necessary and medically approved care” to transgender youth while continuing the same care for cisgender patients. Genecis — which stood for Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support — was an acclaimed 7-year-old program created by the hospitals to provide comprehensive care to trans and gender-diverse youth. It was the only such program in the state of Texas before it stopped providing gender-affirming medical care for new patients in November 2021. (Wolf, 3/28)

The petition says changes at the program, known as Genecis, violate doctors’ promise to promote “health and a healthy society” as health professionals. Its signatories also raise concerns that there was outside pressure to stop taking new patients into the program, which the petition says could hurt trans youth who rely on treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. “In the same way that gender-affirming care saves lives, a lack of access or undue barriers to gender-affirming care causes real harm,” the petition reads, according to a copy obtained by The Dallas Morning News. The signatories came from dozens of specialties, with about 200 working with children in the pediatric fields. (McGaughy and Wolf, 3/28)

With COVID-19 numbers continuing to drop, Ferndale’s Affirmations LGBTQ+ Community Center, 290 W. Nine Mile Road, is rebuilding its roster of in-person support groups. The group recently announced the return of its bisexual+ group, as well as a new harm reduction group for community members dealing with addiction. “A lot of people have been asking for the return of our bisexual support group,” said Affirmations community relations manager Kyle Taylor. “It starts on April 4 and is held every Monday at 6:30 p.m., and is for bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, queer, polysexual or anyone who experiences attraction to more than one gender. It’s all about bringing in conversation around that, and also doing different outings. (Beddingfield, 3/28)

A groundbreaking report by the National Academy of Sciences on how to best gather information on gender and sexuality says gender identity, not biological sex, should be the default data collected and reported. The report, released this month, provides recommendations to the National Institutes of Health for how to measure gender and sexuality throughout different health contexts, including in research, surveys, health care administration and clinical practice. Made up of 27 different branches, the NIH is the nation’s agency for medical research, as well as the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. Its global influence puts it in a unique position to model meaningful data collection on gender and sexual minority populations. (Mithani, 3/28)