Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named Ashley Moody, Florida’s Attorney General, as Florida’s U.S. Senator. And he listed her anti-trans record on gender-affirming health care for minors as one of his reasons.
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“She sued the Biden administration to prevent brutal transgender surgeries on these minor kids,” said DeSantis, who has signed several transphobic bills into law including restrictions on medical care.
Kids are not having "transgender surgeries." Medical experts, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have emphasized that gender-affirming care is evidence-based, medically necessary, and supported by every major medical and mental health association in the United States.
Related: Only 0.1 percent of youth receive gender-affirming meds, according to study
Moody will replace Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican with his own mixed but largely anti-LGBTQ+ record, who is expected to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. That means Moody could be sworn into the U.S. Senate as soon as Monday.
Moody has promised to bring a conservative outlook similar to DeSantis’ agenda to the upper chamber of Congress.
“I do so with the understanding that the people of Florida gave me this opportunity, and I want to deliver on what I assured them, and that was we were going to protect their rights,” she said. “We were going to protect the autonomy of this state. We were going to protect our communities. And I believe that we have done that, and I think we have to take that same direction to the United States Senate.”
As for Moody, she has fought LGBTQ+ equality on a number of fronts. That includes participating in a multi-state lawsuit that successfully stopped the Biden administration from extending Title IX protections to transgender athletes.
“The idea that young girls can now legally be forced to undress in the same room with males in what is supposed to be a safe space like a locker room, that a young woman could be randomly assigned a roommate that is a biological male with little to no say over the matter, or that biological men would be eligible for women’s scholarships is ludicrous,” she said at the time.
She has also successfully defended Florida’s ban on trans athletes participating in female sports at the scholastic level. But she lost in court trying to defend Florida’s drag show law, which bars venues from allowing minors into shows with sexual content. Moody argued the Florida law was designed to “prevent the exposure of children to sexually explicit live performances,” but a conservative U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the law infringed on free speech.
Last year, Moody also launched an investigation of Starbucks, alleging its diversity, equity and inclusion programs actually constituted employment discrimination and a “race-based quota system.”
Moody also publicly defended Florida’s controversial “don’t say gay” law, telling Fox News that media critics perpetuated a ”farce” and said the bill protected children as young as 4 from “classroom instruction on sexual interest.” Shortly afterward. The Florida Board of Education extended restrictions on instruction about sexuality and gender through 12th grade.
