CNN reports “minorities, immigrants and now members of the LGBTQ community are being warned of the risks of visiting Florida after the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group issued a travel advisory following newly passed laws and policies that may be harmful to people in those communities.”

From the article:

• LGBTQ advocates in the state criticized the legislation as a larger effort to erase them from Florida schools and society. One measure prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming treatments, including prescriptions that block puberty hormones or sex-reassignment surgeries. Under the law, a court could intervene to temporarily remove a child from their home if they receive gender-affirming treatments or procedures, and it treats such health care options, which are supported by the American Medical Association, the same as it would a case of child abuse. DeSantis also signed a provision restricting teachers, faculty and students from using the pronouns of their choice in public schools. That bill declares that it must be the policy of all schools that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false” to use a pronoun other than the sex on a person’s birth certificate. It also affirmed that sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be taught in schools through eighth grade, codifying a state Board of Education decision to block such topics in all grades, from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

This is a tough one. I am pro LGBTQ equal rights: marriage rights, etc. I think sexual orientation and gender identity should be taught in schools. On the other hand, I’ve read about people who have received medical gender-affirming treatments as children who later wished they’d never had it, so I’m a little more on the fence as to whether children are developmentally ready to make such life changing decisions. I fully support adults who seek gender-affirming medical treatments.

It’s interesting that the biblical prohibition against homosexuality may have very simple roots. For instance, they may simply have been trying to distinguish themselves from competing fertility cults. Similarly, the ancient prohibitions against homosexuality were often masculinity based, in that the passive partner was considered “un-manly.”