What the far-right thought was a golden ticket to the White House became a dead end for once presidential-hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis — and Florida voters are tiring of it, too.
Since his reign, DeSantis has been working with the conservative Florida legislature to pass anti-LGBTQ reactionary bills and executive measures, such as the infamous Don’t Say Gay Bill and the ban on gender-affirming care.
Despite his hateful record in service of a culture war, Desantis did not win a single county in Iowa, and quickly dropped out of the presidential race. Maybe DeSantis and other political hopefuls will learn that instead of the continued demonization of queer people, lawmakers should focus on issues voters really care about: the insurance housing crisis, low wages, affordable housing, and inflation costs impacting all Americans.
Let’s take a look back at the 2023 Florida legislative session as an example of what not to focus on if you want to rally the people behind you.
The 2023 legislative session was arguably one of the worst legislative sessions during the DeSantis administration’s reign in Tallahassee. A huge boo tomato tomato moment, if you ask me. The Florida governor and the Republican supermajority legislature wreaked havoc among social justice, community, and LGBTQ+ advocates and allies with bills that targeted education, abortion, undocumented immigrants, unions, and worker’s rights.
These attacks against the LGBTQ+ community aren’t new for the Governor and his colleagues. Bills impacting legal recognition, LGBTQ+ children, and education continue to threaten our communities in the 2024 legislative cycle. So it’s important to review last year’s session to understand the landscape we must organize against.
Ban on Gender Affirmative Care
Just last year, gender-affirming care was targeted, where the legislature passed a bill ending all access for transgender youth and extremely limiting access to trans adults through SB 254.
Before the bill’s passage, transgender people were able to obtain necessary medication through nurse practitioners and had the option of telehealth services. Thanks to SB 254, there’s been a huge decrease in the number of providers available to distribute life-saving care. Some healthcare organizations, such as 26health, no longer provide hormone replacement therapy. Before this law, 80 percent of transgender adults were receiving care from nurse practitioners.
This law impacts way more Floridians than you might expect. Florida is known to have the second-largest transgender adult population after California, with roughly 100,000 transgender adults living in the state. So, while much of the media has framed this as a “parent’s rights” issue, they’ve failed to mention that this is a partial adult ban on gender-affirming care.
Medical boards such as the Florida Board of Medicine also approved rules prohibiting doctors from providing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria. They also require informed consent forms claiming medical treatment related to gender-affirming care has overwhelmingly negative implications, is risky, and does not have enough research to back its usage.
The lack of accessibility only increases the hardships of gender expansive and transgender individuals who go through medical transition and are low-income. Because of such regulations, many had and have few options, having to wait longer to get access to care, traveling out of state to seek care, and even being forced to move out of state due to the criminality attached to minors receiving such care. Those with intersections of other identities, such as being disabled or undocumented, face additional barriers with a loss of online options and a bill that requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask for immigration status for those who seek health care.
Restroom Ban and Increase of Hate Crimes
Transgender people were banned from using the bathroom of their gender identity in public schools, government buildings, and airports. Because of these bills, Equality Florida issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ+ people seeking to move or travel to the state. Such measures from the state have pushed LGBTQ+ people to feel unsafe, parents wanting to flee the state, and positive LGBTQ+ friendly rankings in progressive cities such as Orlando to tank from #3 to #34.
As always, with hateful rhetoric and policies to match comes hate crimes. Fears from our community have spread as we’ve witnessed the vandalization of LGBTQ Centers centers and a gay nightclub and hateful language appearing on traffic signs.
Unfortunately, these bills and the backlash against the LGBTQ+ community do not end in Florida. In 2022, the Human Rights Campaign found that 23 states have filed bills that are anti-LGBTQ. This year, 285 anti-LGBT bills have been filed throughout the country, while threats against the community have only increased.
Our movement is fighting back
Although things may be grim in the attacks against LGBTQ+ folks in the South and Midwest, wins are still possible and are happening. Don’t count us out.
Along with the happy news that the Governor suspended his presidential campaign, the anti-drag show and Anti-DEI policies in the workplace bills that passed were proven to be unconstitutional. The Florida Board of Education must send instructions to school districts allowing the discussion of LGBTQ+ people and that gay-straight alliances stay in schools. These legal decisions alone expose the importance of organizing.
Floridians who showed up — and continue to show up — in numbers to challenge the unpopular measures being passed in the legislature are crucial because when we show up in numbers, checks against these bills can happen both in and outside of the ballot box.
Organizations and numerous allies throughout the state, such as Equality Florida, Hope CommUnity Center, Planned Parenthood, the Umbrella Brigade, Florida NOW, and more progressive organizations, organized and defeated anti-LGBTQ laws this session, such as the now-dead bills that sought to ban pride flags and the infamous HB 1639 that sought to ban trans people from receiving IDs that reflect their gender identities.
These advocates don’t plan on stopping. They will organize and speak outside of the legislative session for amendments like the Yes on Four initiative to codify abortion, which reaches voters this November.
They invite and urge those who are against these bills to come up to Tallahassee in future sessions and to participate in local community meetings to prevent the passing of such bills and ordinances. Even with voting happening along party lines, these organizations won’t go down without a fight to ensure the equality and well-being of all Floridians — including queer, low-income, disabled, BIPOC, and immigrant communities.
Just as Florida has been ground zero for some of the most hateful rhetoric and policies, it can be ground zero to show the country what the movement to fight for all of our communities looks like.