Travel Warning Issued to LGBTQ+ People Visiting Florida

An LGBTQ+ advocacy group has taken the "extraordinary" step of issuing a travel advisory to the community it represents, warning against visiting Florida over concerns about "health, safety and freedom."

In a statement outlining its position on Tuesday, Equality Florida, a civil rights organization, claimed that laws being brought forward by the state had made it an unsafe place for LGBTQ+ individuals. The group cited a series of examples of laws that it said had made Florida "hostile" to the community.

LGBTQ+ rights have become a key part of the culture wars, with many states seeking to legislate to limit inclusion and access to gender-affirming care. However, according to a 2023 Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans were satisfied with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people, while 38 percent were dissatisfied.

Transgender rights and the sorts of care afforded to minors, meanwhile, are proving to be deeply polarizing issues. A 2022 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 38 percent of Americans believe society had gone too far in accepting trans people, while 36 percent said it had not gone far enough.

"It is with great sadness that we must respond to those asking if it is safe to travel to Florida or remain in the state as the laws strip away basic rights and freedoms," said Nadine Smith, Equality Florida's executive director.

The group accused Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis of making "extremist policies the centerpiece of his presidential campaign strategy" and said he had "weaponized state agencies to silence critics and impose sanctions on large and small companies that dissent with his culture war agenda."

"This type of thing is a political stunt," a spokesperson for DeSantis told Newsweek. "We aren't going to waste our time worrying about political stunts. We will continue doing what is right for Floridians."

The spokesperson pointed to comments made by the governor on March 23, when he was asked about a separate potential travel advisory by the NAACP.

"This is a stunt," DeSantis said. "If you want to waste your time on a stunt, that's fine. I'm not wasting my time on your stunts, OK. I'm going to make sure we're getting things done here, and we're going to continue to make this state a great state."

Although DeSantis has yet to declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race, he is widely seen as the most likely opponent to Donald Trump in the GOP field. As part of his governorship, he has pushed an anti-woke agenda that runs counter to several Democrat policies.

Equality Florida cited studies that had found over half of LGBTQ+ parents in the state were considering leaving and that one in eight high school students would not attend college in Florida due to its education policies, as signs of the impact those policies were already having.

It also described a recently signed law allowing people to carry concealed guns in public without a permit as making Florida "less safe," pointing to research by gun control organization Everytown that suggested such laws led to a 13-15 percent increase in violent crime.

Gun rights groups often claim, however, that restrictions prevent victims of gun attacks from defending themselves.

While Everytown says state legislators "are instead actively working to weaken Florida's gun laws," it also states that Florida's gun violence rate is similar to the national average and that the state bars people with convictions for violent offenses from carrying a concealed weapon.

Equality Florida said gun violence "is stealing our loved ones," noting the high school shooting in Parkland in 2018, which led to the deaths of 17 people—the deadliest at a high school in U.S. history—and a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando in 2016, which left 49 people dead.

The advocacy group also cited an October report which said a drag queen story hour for children in Orlando was cancelled over concerns that it might attract members of far-right and neo-Nazi groups.

Newsweek contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orlando Police Department via email on Thursday for comment.

The Florida legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that bans children from attending drag shows. Proponents of the bill expressed concerns that such events expose minors to inappropriate behavior, while opponents said it would demonize the LGBTQ+ community.

In its travel advisory, Equality Florida also pointed to new rules that ban gender-affirming care for transgender children, including puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery. Medical officials have said there was not yet enough research into the treatments to justify their potential side-effects.

Republicans in a majority of states are working to pass legislation that would instead limit the medical treatment that children are allowed to receive as part of their physical transition. Proponents argue that they are doing so over concerns that minors are being harmed by gender-affirming procedures, while opponents say they are limiting transgender rights.

Equality Florida also listed a series of legislative steps the state had taken regarding the inclusion of LGBTQ+ content in the education system.

It said a law dubbed "Don't Say Gay"—barring teachers from kindergarten to third-grade students in public schools from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom—had made Florida "synonymous with the anti-LGBTQ+ movement to empower government censorship." Supporters of the law said they were protecting parents' say over their children's education.

The controversial law is due to be debated again after Republicans in Florida's House passed measures on March 31 that would expand the restrictions through to eighth grade.

Update 04/13/23, 11:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from an spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis.