This month, the Florida Board of Medicine voted to ban gender-affirming care for many transgender youth. The ban prevents minors who were not already receiving care from beginning treatment such as hormones or puberty blockers. It’s the first such rule from a state medical board, but it may not be the last.

The rule flies in the face of scientifically-backed guidelines established over years by The World Professional Association for Transgender Health and recommendations from accredited medical groups such as the assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-reinforces-opposition-restrictions-transgender-medical-care">American Medical Association. Physicians who study or provide gender-affirming healthcare have noted the ban is based on flawed research and misinterpretation, and influenced by disinformation narratives pushed by the right-wing. And this disinformation has seeped into all facets of the public discourse about transgender care and identity.

We speak with Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, who testified against the Florida ban at a recent public meeting; and Alberto Cairo, the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami in Florida, and whose son has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.