Florida leaders misrepresented research before ban on gender-affirming care

Behind Florida's decision to block clinical services for transgender adolescents is a talking point — repeated by the state's governor and top medical authorities — that most cases of gender incongruence fade over time.

The Florida Board of Medicine voted Nov. 4 to approve a rule that barred physicians from performing surgical procedures on minors to alter "primary or secondary sexual characteristics" and from prescribing them medication to suppress puberty and hormones. The rule included an exception for patients who were already receiving those treatments. 

Two days later, Florida's Republican governor, Ron...