The director of Miami-based SAVE, the longest established organization in South Florida dedicated to protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals, said Florida Legislature appears dead set on erasing his community.
“When you hear a person who works in a school, who happens to be a member of the LGBTQ community, not be able to freely say that they are married to somebody of the same sex – that’s the erasure,” said SAVE Director Orlando Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was referencing the Parental Rights in Education act – which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” – that was passed in 2022 and then expanded this year.
Gonzalez was the most recent guest on the Anti-Social during Pride Month, the annual celebration of the Stonewall protests in 1969 where the LGBTQ community stood up against oppression.
Still, years after the rights for gay adoption and same-sex marriage were won, the LGBTQ community again finds itself under attack, Gonzalez said.
There were six laws this last legislative session that were passed that groups like SAVE consider anti-LGBTQ, including criminalizing doctors who provide gender affirming care, prohibiting transgender individuals from using the bathroom of their expressed gender, and a new law that would allow healthcare providers and insurers to deny patient care base on religious moral or ethical beliefs.
On Wednesday, a Florida judge struck down Florida rules – championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis – restricting Medicaid coverage for gender dysphoria treatment.
“It stresses people out to hear the constant news and the stream of proposed pieces of legislation that are coming out that are anti-LGBTQ,” Gonzalez said.
Here on Key Biscayne, resident Kristen Kann said her security camera caught what appears to be a young teen spitting on her LGBTQ flag that she displayed to show appreciation for family members.
“Every time I watch it, I get sad, angry and confused that someone was so full of hate to do such an act,” Kann wrote in an op-ed piece for The Independent. “It was intentional and mean spirited.
