It's not quite beach season yet, but we're heading down to Florida anyway. Last week was a busy one in the Sunshine State's capitol building as this year's legislative session wrapped up. The state's ongoing antagonism of its queer and trans residents was a subject of conversation again this session, mirroring a national trend that has been noted by the Associated Press and the American Civil Liberties Union. Today we're going to take a closer look at Florida's recent spate of anti-queer legislation and how it's seeping out to other states.
First comes Florida, then comes...?
Florida's state government is ramping up attacks on queer people again, children especially. Last week, there was a flurry of legislation in Tallahassee aimed at constricting the lives of queer and trans people in the state even further. Highlights included: an expansion of the "Don't Say Gay" law up to 12th grade (it was previously limited to K-3); a bill that allows the state to interfere in child custody arrangements across state lines if a child may receive gender-affirming care in the second state; and a ban on gender affirming medical treatment for transgender minors, which Gov. Ron DeSantis has inaccurately called "child mutilation."
The events of the last few years are a stark reversal for Florida compared to 2015, when a federal judge in Miami-Dade County struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage in January of that year, five months before the landmark Obergefell ruling was decided in the Supreme Court.
Why it matters now
As my colleague Anna Claire Vollers noted earlier this year, just as California is considered a legislative testing ground for progressive laws, so is Florida for conservative ones. Other states around the country have followed Florida's lead in passing legislation banning "critical race theory" from public school curricula, including Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho and Utah. It's not a stretch to believe that laws antagonistic toward queer citizens would follow. With buzz around Ron DeSantis possibly making a run for the White House next year, his record as an anti-trans conservative is likely to be a key part of his campaign (should such campaign materialize).
