Let’s be honest, 2023 was brutal and our very existence as LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, people of color, youth and those in need of access to reproductive health is on the line.
I would even dare to say the circle of directly impacted people grew to include health care workers and educators. We were targets of a war waged on our right to exist, love, learn and dream.
But why? Did Gov. Ron DeSantis one day decide to attack us based on his personal convictions? Well, his recent announcement to run for president tells us otherwise.
I grew up hearing stories of a dark time in Brazilian history, my country of birth. My mother often tells me about the horrors of dictators who would disappear neighbors, imprison their political enemies and more. They attacked ethnic and racial minorities while taunting LGBTQ+ communities to mobilize their base. They outlawed abortion. They enacted policies that forced millions to leave their ancestral land to fuel an economic development strategy focused on making the richest families in the country richer and the poor easier targets for exploitation. Books were burned and outlawed.
Will Florida — or potentially the entire country — go in the same direction? The answer lies with each one of us. Are we willing to fight back, give our all and defend our core democratic values as a nation? Let me be clear: we are fighting for the soul of our country and the frontlines are in every neighborhood in Florida.
More than five decades after the Stonewall Riots, we are back fighting for our right to host public Pride events. Transgender adults and youth are losing lifesaving access to gender-affirming health care. Immigrants are forced deeper into hiding because of unjust laws aimed at making their lives so hard that it will become nearly impossible to survive in Florida without risking racial profiling and family separation. People who can get pregnant lost their right to self-determination and bodily autonomy. Educators can’t talk about LGBTQ+ people as if we don’t exist and they can’t teach our country’s history of racial injustice. Countless books have been banned. Health care workers are now required to ask their patients about their immigration status and Registered Nurses can’t prescribe Hormone Replacement Treatment to transgender patients. The list goes on and on and on. I won’t sugarcoat it — these are genocidal attacks.
But there is hope! Our hope lies in everyday people taking collective action. It lies in our mighty Campaign for our Dreams and Freedom, made of more than 20 organizations, that brought more than 1,000 people together for a truly intersectional rally at Lake Eola May 1, and it is now planning an action outside state Rep. Susan Plasencia July 1. It lies in the more than 500 immigrant workers who closed Conway with their bodies and trucks June 1 and the more than 50 small businesses who closed in solidarity with immigrants. It is on the buses leaving the Orlando area down to Ft Lauderdale for the We The People March July 2. It lies in Addisyn, a young transgender girl, who is planning an action outside the Orange County Courthouse on July 4. Hope lives in every time a person makes the conscious decision to vote and to bring at least 10 people with them to the polls. We are leading a summer and fall of resistance! We can’t stop and we won’t stop! Our lives depend on it.
Let’s not forget, we come from greatness. Our modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights began with Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera, two transgender women of color, throwing the first brick during the Stonewall Riots. I often think about Cleve Jones running down the Castro in San Francisco chanting “out of the bars into the streets.” The countless LGBTQ+ leaders in Act Up who singlehandedly forced the federal government to change their policies towards AIDS and bring lifesaving medication to thousands. I hold in my heart thoughts of Bayard Rustin organizing the March on Washington. I carry with me the countless queer and trans undocumented youth who I organized alongside. We risked our lives to deliver the most significant victory in the immigrant rights movement since 1986 — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. We are possible because of them, and it is our duty to keep hope alive.
A few days after our May 1 action at Lake Eola, I joined a group of freedom fighters in an occupation of DeSantis’ office. I and 13 other leaders locked arms, sang freedom songs, chanted and demanded answers. At one point, I led a chant “We’re here! We’re queer! We will not disappear!” Soon after, the entire group joined. Most of the group didn’t identify as queer or trans but they joined in solidarity. At that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone and our resistance WILL change history. Later that day, we were arrested and thrown into jail.
This movement is made of everyday people like you and me. People who made the conscious choice to fight back. One thing I know to be true, change only happens when we rise as one. Let this Pride Month, summer of resistance and fall of resilience be remembered as a wave that will carry us into a better tomorrow. We are the David that will defeat this Goliath.
!Si Se Puede!
Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet is the executive director of the Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka and the board chair of the One Orlando Alliance.
