As Florida lawmakers file proposals that could further undermine trans and queer rights in Florida, young organizers are leading the charge in calling on the community to “stand up, fight back!”
About 100 local advocates for queer and trans rights gathered at Orlando City Hall on Saturday to bring attention to the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community coming from Republican state legislators.
“We have to protect each other,” said Gigi, a local agender high school student, who organizes with Orlando Liberation Initiative.
The youth-led socialist group organized the Saturday rally, which centered a message of building power on a grass-roots level. With a Republican supermajority in the Florida Legislature, Florida Democrats face an uphill battle in blocking any legislation prioritized by GOP leaders.
“At what moment do we stand up and fight back against this bigotry, and tell our legislators that this is not OK?” one of the group’s organizers asked.
“We must unite together as a community to protect and defend our queer friends,” they said, immediately earning cheers from the crowd.
“We have seen the re-criminalization of transness and queerness in public,” said Grace, an organizer with the community defense group No More Dead Sisters. “Now is the time for us to rediscover what solidarity means.”
There was an air of determination and solemnity permeating the crowd. Of hope, anger, grief and uncertainty. The stakes are high. This year, there are a number of bills snaking their way through the state Senate and House chambers that concern queer folks and those who care about them. Florida Republicans have filed bills to legislate drag performances out of the public eye, to expand Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law — to bar any classroom discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation from pre-K through 8th grade — and to weaken sex education in schools.
There’s a proposal to gut diversity and inclusion programs at colleges and universities, as well as eliminate majors and minors in race and ethnicity studies, gender studies and intersectionality studies. A proposal dubbed the “Reverse WOKE Act” would require private companies that cover transgender healthcare to also cover detransition costs. That one’s filed by the same Republican who’s taken aim this year at public sector unions, undocumented immigrants and the state Democratic Party.
Another proposal, up for discussion Monday, is one that would ban gender affirming care — such as puberty blockers, which are reversible — for transgender youth. Florida Sen. Yarborough and Rep. Randy Fine, the two Republican sponsors of that legislation, have described the treatments aimed at helping relieve gender dysphoria as “mutilation” and “life-altering.”
Actual medical experts dispute this. Gender affirming treatments (which aren’t new) are evidence-based and are endorsed by every major medical association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
These treatments can be “life-altering” for some, sure — but not in the way conservatives frame it. Research shows that, for trans and nonbinary youth, gender-affirming medical care can help reduce thoughts of suicide and depression. It can also improve self-esteem and improve a child’s quality of life.
All of this comes on top of existing policies that have made the state of Florida feel increasingly hostile to people who are not cisgender or heterosexual: the original Parental Rights in Education bill (aka “Don’t Say Gay”), a 2022 law that’s opened the door to banning books in schools, criminal penalties for teachers, and other forms of whitewashing in Florida’s public education system.
State legislators in the Orlando area, such as Rep. Anna Eskamani — who stood among the crowd at Saturday’s rally — and Rep. Rita Harris have spoken out against bills that serve to censor, erase and vilify queer existence in Florida.
Saturday’s youth organizers, most of whom identified as trans or genderqueer, emphasized that voting for Democrats (even those who speak out against anti-LGBTQ legislation) is not enough. Nor are raucous chants of “Fuck Ron DeSantis!” — as cathartic as some members of the crowd seemed to find that activity.
Organizers urged each person in attendance Saturday— a multiracial group of people, ranging in age — to find an organization to connect with right then and there, to build power from the ground up. “We’re going to stand together in the face of rising fascism in the state and tell them we are done.”
