Florida’s New Laws Affect the LGBTQ Community

Charly Obermiller, Reporter| May 31, 2023

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The LGBTQ community in Florida has been affected by recent “anti-LGBTQ” bills that have caused some Pride events to get cancelled due to safety concerns.

Over the past few months, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed multiple bills that are seen as anti-LGBTQ, causing active Pride meets to be canceled and shut down. Bills include HB 1069, which prevents educators from any instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity, SB 254, a gender-affirming care ban, and HB 1521, an anti-trans bathroom bill. With Florida being a popular vacation location, tourism of queer people to the state could also be affected.

According to some members of the LGBTQ community, they feel targeted and unsafe as a result of these laws.

“A lot of the time, [Gov. DeSantis] doesn’t explicitly target the LGBT community,” Bella Yi ’26 said. “But his laws are almost always written so that they only disproportionately affect people in the LGBT community.”

Within the Pride community, functions like Pride parades to gain allies to the LGBTQ community are seen as important because they help raise awareness of the struggles the community still faces. Due to DeSantis signing “anti-LGBTQ” bills, causing these events to be canceled, members of the community have felt undervalued.

“[The laws] directly violate the Bill of Rights, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech,” Ren Willingham ’26 said.

Florida is a popular summer destination, offering activities such as seeing beaches, going to Disney World, and even just walking around in general. Disney is public about their support for the Pride community. The company even threatened to leave Florida due to the anti-LGBTQ bills being signed.

“Politics is a game. DeSantis doesn’t care about anyone except for the people voting for him,” Emmy Hoskin ’23 said. “Why do you think he thought it was a good idea to go after Disney?”

The cancellation of Pride meets and protests has sent the LGBTQ community into turmoil as Florida lawmakers discuss over 520 LGBTQ-related bills.

“I feel like with [Florida lawmakers] canceling everything, LGBTQ members won’t get what they want or deserve,” Aarav Singh ’26 said. “People deserve to be themselves. Not something they aren’t.”

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