Barnaby's comments came amid a state and national onslaught of legislation targeting transgender people. In Florida, lawmakers filed 18 bills aiming to regulate where trans Floridians can use the bathroom, whether they can access health care and to what extent they can express themselves in public.
While there's no set definition for unconstitutional animus, courts have previously ruled that laws based on hostility or private bias toward a specific group of people are unconstitutional, Pollvogt said.. At issue was a law that banned households with unrelated members from receiving food stamp benefits.
In fact, more recently, the court has been resistant to recognize unconstitutional animus at all, said Alejandra Caraballo, a lawyer and trans activist. For example, while the court struck down President Donald Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the opinion noted that Trump's racist comments toward Mexican immigrants on the campaign trail weren't relevant because he wasn't responsible for implementing the policy.
In response to inquiries from a reporter, his spokesman, Andres Malave, released a statement that afternoon:"The Speaker began last year’s session calling for civility and respect from all our members," he said."We can debate and explain our positions, where there may be significant differences, while maintaining decorum and upholding the standards our constituents expect and deserve.
Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Bob Rommel, R-Naples, initially responded via text message to a phone call from a reporter but did not respond to questions about why he allowed Barnaby to continue after he began insulting members of the public. Among them were activists, parents of trans people, and trans Floridians themselves, including a Florida State University student who pointed to his beard and male gender marker on his driver's license to demonstrate the difficulty of enforcing the law.
However, critics say there are already laws on the books criminalizing such attacks, and legislation like Plakon's that has passed through state houses all over the country leaves trans people in an impossible predicament: follow the law and face potential harassment because their appearance doesn't align with their sex assigned at birth, or break the law, which carries a risk for criminal penalties.
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