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The Florida Board of Governors is asking the state’s public higher ed institutions for information on any students treated for gender dysphoria.
According to a document that a spokesperson for the board provided to Inside Higher Ed, institutions are being asked to collect and report a wide range of data on transgender and gender-nonconforming students and their interactions with student health centers.
The information requested includes any instances when individuals asked for, were referred for or were provided with “sex-reassignment treatment” by university health centers; the number of individuals diagnosed with a gender identity disorder as a result of those inquiries; and the number who were prescribed puberty blockers, hormones or hormone antagonists. The order also requests the number of individuals who underwent a variety of gender-affirming surgeries, including mastectomies, breast augmentations, vaginoplasties and phalloplasties, among others.
The order also requests a breakdown of these data by age, “including those who were under 18 at the time of any encounter or treatment.” The directive comes just over two months after state medical officials, at Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s urging, banned gender-affirming therapy or surgery for minors.
In an email statement announcing the directive, a spokesperson for the Board of Governors wrote that institutions “are to ensure responses do not contain personally identifiable information or protected health information and are provided in an aggregated and de-identified format.”
The order directs the system trustees to collect the information from each university in their purview and forward it to the education unit of the governor’s Office of Policy and Budget by Feb. 10.
