SANFORD, FL—During a press conference addressing Florida's fentanyl crisis, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo praised the Sunshine State's transgender sports ban in the wake of the Summer Olympics imposing new restrictions on transgender athletes.
Who would have thought it would be controversial to allow girls to compete with other girls and not have to compete with boys?” Ladapo said at Monday's Sanford press conference, praising the Governor's 2021 ban on transgender-identifying girls competing in girls' sports.
“I don’t think any of our parents would have ever thought that would’ve been controversial.”
Ladapo's comments follow the 2024 Summer Olympics' announcement of increased restrictions on transgender athletes than in previous years. The World Athletics Council—the games' governing body— has mandated that transgender athletes wishing to compete must have fully transitioned before the age of 12 as part of the "overriding need to protect the female category."
Though the press conference was about increasing awareness and penalties for fentanyl and fentanyl exposure, Ladapo stuck with his theme of transgender sports, managing to tie in the Governor's passage of athletics bans to his enaction of opioid protections.
"We have so many things happening at leadership levels at the federal level, you know, whether it’s boys playing on girls teams — and winning titles — or other just things that don’t make sense,” Ladapo said, praising DeSantis, “that having an individual — in this case, a man who does make sense — just stands in in sharp contrast and is very refreshing for a lot of Floridians and a lot of Americans.”
Months after Governor DeSantis signed the state's transgender athlete ban, he appointed Ladapo as Surgeon General. Since his September 2021 appointment, Ladapo has been no stranger to controversy, most recently receiving massive backlash for Florida's sudden Measles outbreak.
