The LGBTQ+ community has become Florida’s political battleground over the past two years.
In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis waged a heavily publicized war against drag queens performing in Wynwood. Last year, he signed a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills from the Florida Legislature. Most recently, the governor expressed a clear intent to challenge federal protections for transgender students against sex-based discrimination.
“We are living in a political moment where a vocal minority – just like during the fight for marriage equality – think that they should decide who has rights and who doesn’t,” said Todd Delmay, executive director of SAVE, Florida’s longest-serving LGBTQ+ political advocacy organization.
(X/@GovRonDeSantis)
Gov. Ron DeSantis has spearheaded several state policies limiting LGBTQ+ rights in public education.
“It tells the public that human rights can be up for discussion, and they shouldn’t be,” Delmay added. “Human rights are human rights. LGBTQ+ rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights.”
In this edition’s commentary page, former Miami Herald reporter Steve Rothaus gives voice to LGBTQ+ activists who feel the growing political pressure, but who advise the community to put the “pride” in “Pride Month” anyway.
Indeed, there are glimmers of hope to celebrate even within the political realm, says Joe Saunders, an openly gay candidate challenging incumbent Fabián Basabe in the Florida House District 106 race (which includes much of the Biscayne Times coverage area) and senior political director of Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.
(The Miami Foundation)
Todd Delmay, SAVE Executive Director
“In 2024 as we head into an election year following Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential race, what we’ve seen is a reassertion of the Florida Legislature as an equal and separate branch … We saw the Florida Senate emerge as a cooling hand again, so that 21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed in the most recent legislative session were either neutralized or failed. That, to me, is a sign of the resistance, even within Republicans, to the extremism that Ron DeSantis forced on Florida,” said Saunders.
No matter which direction the scale seems to lean toward at any given moment, however, the fact remains clear: LGBTQ+ rights are a fragile uncertainty in the state of Florida.
Frequent Threats
In the national landscape of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, Florida sticks out like a sore thumb. The Movement Advancement Project, an independent and nonprofit think tank, gives the state a score of -2 out of 44.5 for policies affecting and shaping the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. Only 10 other states received a score lower than Florida’s.
(MyFloridaHouse.gov)
Former FL House District 49 Rep. Joe Saunders
In just one year, state lawmakers made it illegal for transgender individuals to use public restrooms that match their gender identity; made it a felony for health care providers to give gender-affirming care to transgender youth and adults; promoted the removal of majors and minors in gender studies at universities; and created a license to discriminate for health care employers based on religious, moral or ethical beliefs.
The “Don’t Say Gay” bill triggered particular backlash in 2022 for its potential to create unsafe and unwelcoming environments for both students and teachers in Florida public schools. The bill has since been slightly neutralized as the result of a March 2024 settlement allowing discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public classrooms, as long as it’s not part of instruction. But for many, the feeling of being unwanted remains.
“What we have experienced since ‘Don’t Say Gay’ is that many of our young people have been feeling very isolated,” said Delmay. “They’ve been feeling under attack, and quite honestly, I feel like we’ve lost an entire generation of young people who have left the state because Florida has not felt like a safe place for them.”
(Courtesy of Michelle Ocampo)
Drag queens performing at R House Wynwood became a target of Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.
DeSantis is again using public education as his arena for anti-LGBTQ+ policy, this time by going head-to-head with the federal administration. In April, he announced that Florida would not implement newly finalized guidelines under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding.
Those protections could defend the rights of transgender students as they relate to sports, dress codes, bathroom usage and more.
“Federal laws are clearly supreme over state law,” said Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director for Equality Florida. “That is government 101. The state’s obligation to follow federal law doesn’t disappear just because Florida law may be in conflict with it.”
(Movement Advancement Project)
A map from the Movement Advancement Project ranks Florida among the states with the most harmful anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools failed to schedule an interview between the Biscayne Times and Superintendent Jose L. Dotres by press time to discuss how the school board is reacting to the wavering political climate.
Taking Action
(Equality Florida)
Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida Public Policy Director
While the state government attempts to throw blows at the federal administration, however, local activists insist it is incumbent upon the community to remain steadfast in its aim for progress from the ground up.
In April, the brutal murder of 37-year-old transgender woman Andrea Doria Dos Passos revealed the anti-LGBTQ+ violence that persists here in Miami, as well as the shortcomings of local governments and institutions to provide for its most vulnerable.
Dos Passos, who was experiencing homelessness, was being helped by LGBTQ+ community hub Pridelines to find housing.
“The challenge for Miami-Dade is that we just do not have any dedicated housing for the LGBTQ+ community,” said Edward Summers, executive director of Pridelines. “I know there’s some people and some elected officials who mention that we have shelters and that there’s resources out there, but the reality is that when you think of a place to live or sleep, you think of a safe space … and oftentimes individuals in our community don’t feel safe in the facilities that we currently have.”
(Equality Florida)
Trans Afro-Latina Angelique Godwin, director of Transgender Equality for Equality Florida, speaking at a news conference this year challenging the Florida Legislature’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Delmay notes simple steps municipal and county governments can take to create a safe environment for LGBTQ+ individuals, including ensuring that public buildings have gender-neutral bathrooms and providing equal access to health care for government staff.
He also noted the importance of this year’s upcoming elections. One of SAVE’s ongoing initiatives is its “Be Election Ready” project, which encourages LGBTQ+ individuals to have meaningful conversations with voters and understand which candidates are supportive of their issues. That goes for all political races, Delmay says, from school board members and county commissioners to judges and clerks of the court to the newly reinstated sheriff’s office.
(AHF/Biscayne Times File Photo)
Ebonni Chrispin of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation holding a sign in opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in 2022.
“The fight right now is a local fight,” said Delmay. “It’s important that we elect local leaders.”
And that fight is not just one person’s or group’s burden to bear, says Saunders.
“The current slate of hate is certainly the most violent in its effects on transgender people, but the entire LGBTQ+ community and everyone who supports us should understand that these attacks are sweeping,” he said. “These laws affect all of us, and the culture that Ron DeSantis has been promulgating across the state and country affects all of us. They are sending a signal that if you are going to be visible, you need to be afraid and you need to hide.”
Finding Hope Amid Chaos
Perhaps the message is that it’s transgender individuals today, but anyone else tomorrow, if indeed DeSantis sees LGBTQ+ individuals as pawns in a political game, as Saunders suspects. He attributes the governor’s growing antagonism of the LGBTQ+ community to be fueled primarily by his national ambitions.
“Do I think that the public, before Ron DeSantis became obsessed with it, thought that transgender students attending public schools was some kind of crisis? No. I think that these are all invented, manufactured crises … and I think they are designed to distract the broader public while also playing to the most extreme, far-right voters in the United States,” Saunders said.
He drew a parallel to the 2004 presidential election, when former President George W. Bush proposed banning same-sex marriage from the constitution. In the end, however, that battle was won. Therein lies Saunders’ silver lining.
“It is darkest before the dawn,” he said. “It’s hard to see sometimes when there is such an onslaught of attacks … but what has been elevated from these attacks is the humanity of transgender people, the reality of their experience, the reality of what it means to be a parent of a transgender young person and see your own child turn into a political football – all of that work is what builds for the wave of progress that comes next.”
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(Human Rights Campaign)
Andrea Doria Dos Passos, a transgender woman experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade County, was murdered outside Miami City Ballet offices in April.
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(Edward Summers/LinkedIn)
Edward Summers, Pridelines Executive Director