Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration finalized the rule in August 2022, declaring that Medicaid would not cover "puberty blockers," hormones, "sex reassignment" surgeries, or other procedures that alter primary or secondary sex characteristics. 

LGBT and health activist groups led by Lambda Legal represent four young people who identify as transgender and filed a lawsuit in September aiming to block the rule. As part of their lawsuit, the LGBT groups asked the court to temporarily block the rule while it considers the full case. In denying that temporary injunction, the court ruled in October that the case centers on whether Florida's determination that the transgender interventions are "experimental" is "reasonable."

In a motion Friday, the Agency for Health Care Administration urged the court to resolve the case by upholding the rule. At the same time, many third parties submitted amicus briefs also urging the court to uphold the rule. 

Walt Heyer, Ted Halley, and Billy Burleigh defend the rule in one of these briefs, exclusively provided to The Daily Signal.

Heyer, Halley, and Burleigh urge the court to consider the harm that doctors did to their bodies in the name of transgender identity, along with their regret over the procedures. They counter the young transgender plaintiffs' claims that withholding medical interventions will cause "irreversible and harmful physical changes and irreparable mental harm" by noting their personal experiences.

In the brief, the detransitioners "recall that they too were once convinced that gender transition was their path toward healing and happiness. But eventually Walt, Ted, and Billy each came to see his gender transition as a dead end. [Detransitioners] recognize that safeguards like the Florida rule could have saved them a lot of pain and heartache." For that reason, they hope "the rule could help those who experience gender dysphoria or identify as transgender pause and explore other options before fully committing to a gender transition."

Heyer, Halley, and Burleigh note that they "sought treatment through medical and surgical transitions, and found that these treatments did not solve their mental health problems … Each has found more peace and happiness through embracing his biological sex and mental health counseling than he had found through pursuing a gender transition."

These men's "personal experiences with gender dysphoria, gender transition surgery and medical treatments, and de-transition to embrace their biological sex" belie the LGBT activists' claims about a "supposed scientific consensus" on these interventions, the brief notes...Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Click here to read each man's personal story of detransitioning.

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