After a judge struck down the Florida ban on transgender surgeries for minors yesterday, a reporter had the gall to ask Governor DeSantis why taxpayer money should go towards funding the state’s appeal of that ‘gender affirming ruling’.

DeSantis responded with fire:

“Because it’s wrong to mutilate minors! It is wrong to perform a sex-change on a 16-year-old! You’re not allowed to get a tattoo but somehow you can have your privates cut off? Give me a break. This is wrong!”

DeSantis goes on to point out that the 11th Circuit has already upheld a near idental law in Alabama and pointed out that Florida will win on appeal like they almost always do:

This will be reversed – there’s no question it will be reversed. …Of course a state can protect children against this.

There’s more in the clip below:

 
In a longer clip, DeSantis also hit the reporter for using the term ‘gender affirming’ when referring to the lawsuit:

“You’re not affirming that. You’re trying to change their basic biology, which you cannot do. You cannot do that. How you’re born is what you are. So I think it’s about, are we going to be rooted in truth as a society or not? And if we’re rooted in truth, then you would say of course we can’t do these surgeries because it’s not going to take and transform somebody that’s a male into a female.”

The volume isn’t as great but you can listen to the Governor’s longer answer below: