Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters at LaBelle Vineyard on January 17, 2024 in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. (Brandon Bell/Getty Pictures)
“Touring to Florida is harmful”
DeSantis leaned closely into “anti-wokeness,” declaring Florida “the place woke goes to die.” In observe, that meant cracking down on queer individuals, particularly in faculties, in addition to on “vital race principle.” He went to struggle with the Disney Company after it embraced queer staff and theme park guests, minimize state funding for queer organizations and signed a report quantity of anti-LGBTQ legal guidelines, together with making it a felony offense for trans individuals to use restrooms that match their gender id. The governor signed laws banning transgender girls and women from collaborating in class and faculty sports activities that match their gender id, launched felony penalties for adults who assisted younger individuals in accessing gender-affirming healthcare, and even blocked grownup LGBTQ clinics from working. That regulation alone was sufficient to make queer Floridians with the means to flee depart the state. Do you’ve a narrative to share? We’d love to listen to from you. You possibly can contact Ben Hunte at ben.hunte@vice.com, or by way of X (Twitter) or Instagram.However the governor’s most infamous endorsement, the Parental Rights in Training Invoice—also called the “Don’t Say Homosexual” regulation, was launched two years in the past and has wreaked havoc in faculties, particularly for queer academics and college students. The regulation criminalizes the “promotion” of queer lives in faculties, reminiscent of college libraries stocking books encouraging LGBTQ acceptance. Final yr, even after DeSantis confronted worldwide backlash – together with a UN skilled saying he was “deeply alarmed” – the governor expanded the regulation to incorporate older college students too. It was this hostility which led one of many U.S.’s main LGBTQ organizations, the Human Rights Marketing campaign, to declare Florida “unsafe and unwelcoming” for queer individuals final yr.
“We don’t need him again right here”
Mila is a 14 yr previous trans woman who lives in a small city in Florida. She got here out a number of years in the past and was accepted by her household, buddies, and faculty workers, however now, she says her life has been “turned the wrong way up.” Mila believes DeSantis is trying to “cease” her and others from being trans.“Can he simply go away now? We don’t need him again right here,” she informed VICE Information this week, laughing, earlier than she obtained critical. “He’s made my life so arduous, and for what? I hold to myself. I’ve performed nothing to no one. I’m attempting to be me.”Mila’s mom, who requested anonymity as she’s petrified of a backlash for talking out in opposition to DeSantis—, mentioned she respects democracy, however “it’s arduous to see my child attacked on a regular basis.” Mila’s prolonged household voted for DeSantis when he ran for reelection in 2022.“Now he’s banned my daughter’s college from utilizing her chosen pronouns, she will be able to’t do sports activities, she will be able to’t get transitioning assist. If I give Mila the puberty blockers she needs, I might be reported and she or he’d be taken away from me. Ain’t that loopy?” “The quantity of harm Ron DeSantis has performed as governor, the variety of individuals he is harm, the communities he’s shredded, the queer lives he’s upended, it’s arduous to place it into perspective,” mentioned Brandon Wolf, nationwide press secretary for the Human Rights Marketing campaign. Wolf, who’s a survivor of Florida’s Pulse nightclub assault added: “The extra America noticed of Ron DeSantis, the extra they had been repulsed by him. That simply goes to point out that the overwhelming majority of American individuals are good, variety individuals.”DeSantis is 45 years previous, which is younger by nationwide political requirements, and there’s each probability this wasn’t his final run on the White Home. Requested if he’s frightened about what might occur subsequent, Wolf rapidly replied “after all.”“It’s scary to assume how merciless and vindictive DeSantis can be when he will get again to Florida, simply to punish his constituents for his personal political failings,” Wolf mentioned.Need the most effective of VICE Information straight to your inbox? Enroll right here.
