An anti-LGBTQ+ lobbying group based out of Washington, D.C., tried and failed this year to take Florida’s restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans minors a step further by not only drafting language for the legislation but also writing an op-ed to help its sponsors promote it.
A pair of Florida bills filed this year in the state Legislature (HB 743/SB 1010) sought to penalize healthcare providers who provide gender-affirming care to minors under 18, or any other healthcare provider who aids or abets them.
The House bill, sponsored by GOP Rep. Lauren Melo, was later expanded to apply to any person — including a parent, counselor or family friend — who is “knowingly aiding or abetting” gender-affirming care for a minor, punishable as a third-degree felony.
It would have further given the Florida Attorney General’s office the authority to conduct an investigation and bring a civil action for damages, injunctive relief and civil penalties of up to $100,000.
“Anyone who aids and abets, whether it is giving them counseling on how to get gender-affirming care for a minor, or drives them … It’s very clear what aid and abet means,” Melo argued during the bill’s third committee hearing, when pressed on whether a parent or a therapist could be affected. “They would be found guilty,” she confirmed.
Records show, however, that Melo — a Republican from Naples running for Florida Senate this year — didn’t come up with this proposal herself. Draft language for the legislation was emailed by a lobbyist for the national nonprofit Do No Harm to Melo’s office back in November 2025, according to email communications obtained by Orlando Weekly through a public records request.
Founded in 2022, Do No Harm launched with a mission of “protecting patients and physicians from woke healthcare,” per their initial press release. According to the Associated Press, the group has reportedly sent lobbyists to more than a half-dozen states, including Florida, as of 2023 to advocate for restrictions on access to gender-affirming care for transgender people.
They’re known for producing model legislation that their lobbyists distribute to state legislators willing to champion their policy endeavors.
One of their lobbyists in Florida, Jorge Chamizo of the firm Florida Partners, emailed talking points to Melo’s office for the bill in January, at the request of her aide, and wrote a draft op-ed for Melo, according to emails and a draft Word document with metadata that identifies Chamizo as the author. The opinion column was later published word for word on the news website Florida Politics.
“I wanted to share this draft op/ed for Rep Melo’s review and further revisions. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you,” Chamizo wrote to Melo’s legislative aide on Jan. 29. “Thank you Jorge!” her aide (also named Jorge) responded just a minute later.
The op-ed describes gender-affirming care as “dangerous, invasive procedures to which no child should be subjected.”
Gender-affirming care, a term that can refer to medical or non-medical services, aims to affirm the gender identity of a nonbinary or transgender person. It can refer to medical procedures such as cosmetic surgery, hormonal puberty blockers, or something as simple as using a person’s preferred name or pronouns.
It’s been endorsed by almost every major medical association as a treatment to help reduce risk of suicide and support the mental health of transgender people, including youth. In recent years, however, it’s become a key target of the political right-wing’s so-called culture wars, staunchly opposed under the guise of protecting “parental rights” and rejecting “gender ideology.”
“Gender activists may cloak the true nature of these procedures under euphemisms such as ‘gender-affirming care,’ but make no mistake. We are talking about the chemical and surgical mutilation of children,” reads the op-ed, drafted by Do No Harm’s lobbyist and published under Melo’s and Senate bill sponsor Clay Yarborough’s names. “This is anything but care.”
The opinion article was published as a guest column by Florida Politics on Feb. 3, although emails indicate the op-ed was likely pitched to other papers as well. “Quick question: what paper will you be pitching this to?” Melo’s aide asked in a follow-up email, the same day her office received the draft.
“We would run it in Tallahassee, in her current House and future Senate district, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, and any other newspapers that she would have a preference for,” Chamizo responded.
Opinion editors for the Tallahassee Democrat and Naples Daily News did not respond to emails from the Weekly asking if they had received requests to publish the op-ed.
Stalled
House Bill 743 advanced to the full House floor in mid February — halfway through session — after clearing three legislative committees with Republican support, but did not get a vote by the full chamber by the time that session ended this past Friday.
The similar Senate version (which got a surprising “yes” vote from outgoing Democratic Sen. Darryl Rouson of Tampa) meanwhile cleared only one of three of its assigned committees before dying on the vine.
It was one of several highly controversial proposals that advanced but ultimately failed to pass during lawmakers’ 60-day annual legislative session that ended March 13. This year’s session was notably marked by distrust between House and Senate leadership, dysfunction and a failure of the legislature to address leadership’s stated priority of tackling affordability issues.
Rep. Melo, when questioned about Do No Harm’s involvement with HB 743, was unapologetic about her support. She told the Weekly through a spokesperson Wednesday that she was “grateful” for the support her bill received in the House, to constituents for “encouragement,” and “to stakeholders across the country whose stories of gender abuse continue to inspire this fight.”
“While HB 743 did not advance this session, I remain committed to creating real accountability for health care providers who willingly participate in these damaging procedures,” she said in a statement.
Neither Yarborough nor Do No Harm responded to our request for comment on the group’s involvement in this legislation. We have not received records back from the Senate yet establishing any direct connection between Yarborough and Do No Harm.
War on ‘woke healthcare’
At least 27 states in the U.S. today currently limit gender-affirming care for minors, while at least eight prohibit a healthcare provider “aiding or abetting” it. That includes Florida, which prohibits “aiding or abetting” a criminal offense, according to a staff analysis.
In 2023, Florida lawmakers designated providing gender-affirming medical care to minors a third-degree felony under SB 254, a law that passed largely along party lines. Sen. Yarborough, the bill sponsor, framed it as an effort to “protect the children,” despite concerns from parents of trans kids who argued it would do the opposite.
“I am just super angry, super angry that these people are blocking me from protecting my child and protecting and doing what’s right for my patients,” Dr. Robin Hauser, a pediatrician and parent of a trans daughter, told the Tallahassee Democrat in January. “You love your kids more than life, and you know them better than anybody, and so don’t tell me what I can and can’t do with my children.”
The 2023 law also restricts access to gender-affirming care for trans adults by barring them from receiving care through telehealth, requiring this care to be provided by a physician only, and forcing patients to sign medically inaccurate consent forms to receive care.
A national survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign shortly after that law passed found that more than 90 percent of transgender Floridians said the gender-affirming care ban made them feel less safe. Eighty percent said they wanted to move out of Florida or had already taken steps to do so.
Shifts in the policy landscape for access to what trans people consider a form of life-saving healthcare can be attributed at least in part to the aggressive lobbying of groups like Do No Harm that coordinate with lawmakers in state legislatures across the country.
Funded initially through seed money from billionaire conservative activists, Do No Harm is a national nonprofit that claims to represent “physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice,” according to its website. It established a lobbying arm for itself, Do No Harm Action, in 2023.
The group has found friendly political territory in Florida under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has designated himself a champion of the so-called parental rights movement, the right wing’s manufactured war against diversity, equity and inclusion, and has enthusiastically supported policies undermining the rights of LGBTQ+ Floridians in recent years.
In 2022, DeSantis signed into law the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, restricting discussion of sexual identity and gender orientation in K-12 classrooms. He’s also signed laws aiming to get DEI initiatives out of public schools and universities, and is expected to approve a bill passed by lawmakers this year (SB 1134) that would prevent local governments from funding or promoting DEI, with limited carve-outs.
As Vox recently reported, the movement against transgender rights appears to have shifted from undermining opportunities for transgender people — such as access to healthcare — to extinguishing the idea that they exist altogether, through actions such as preventing them from updating the sex marker on their passports and licenses.
Under the Trump administration, such efforts have been emboldened by the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Some of the same actors that helped shape that conservative majority, including right-wing judicial activist Leonard Leo, have also funded Do No Harm, according to HuffPost.
“The politicians and activists pushing attacks like HB 743 are part of a coordinated, nationwide effort to remove transgender people from public life,” Abdelilah Skhir, senior campaign strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, told Orlando Weekly in a statement. “Every Floridian deserves access to the health care they need, and politicians have no place in personal medical decisions,” he continued.
“A threat against any one group is a threat against us all. We can fight for the future we and our families deserve by pushing back against attacks like HB 743 — and all efforts to push people into the shadows because of who they are, who they love, or where they’re from.”
Rep. Melo did not respond to a follow-up question about whether she plans to refile HB 743 next year, potentially from the Senate next time if she wins her election this year.
As it is, state lawmakers will be returning to Tallahassee next month to hammer out a state budget, since they failed to pass one by session’s end. Finalizing a state budget is the only thing they are constitutionally required to do during their annual legislative sessions. This is the second year in a row they have failed to do so in their 60-day window.
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