Florida Welcomes You sign. (Photo by Michael Rivera from Wikimedia Commons)
A spokesperson for the Florida Democratic Party tells the Washington Blade it vows to fight for the repeal of that state’s anti-transgender bathroom bill, which went into effect July 1, after being called out for not counting any anti-trans legislation among “10 Bad Bills” the party recently shared on its social media accounts.
But in the 17 days since the laws went on the books, the Florida Democrats still haven’t made a single social media statement regarding those anti-trans laws. Their last post on the party’s official website even mentioning the trans community was on June 22, after a federal judge blocked Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care, as the Blade reported.
On July 1 and 2, the state Democrats’ official Twitter and Instagram accounts shared a two-page graphic that listed 10 pieces of Republican-supported legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law and is now in effect, laws that Florida Democrats said “take away immigration, health care, education and workers’ rights, threatening our safety and freedom.”
On July 5, YouTuber and photographer Melody Maia Monet from Orlando alerted her Instagram followers of the Florida Democrats’ glaring omission of any mention of anti-transgender legislation, including the new law that prohibits her and every trans person from using the public bathroom matching their authentic gender identity.
“I guess the horrifically discriminatory anti-trans bathroom ban doesn’t even rate a mention? Yeah sounds about right from the party who said Trans people where not a ‘winning issue’ before the midterms and abandoned us. I’m embarrassed for you.” She followed it up with another comment, writing “Also WTF with calling them ‘preferred pronouns.’ We dropped that language some time ago because our pronouns aren’t a ‘preference.’”
State Sen. Shevrin Jones of West Park weighed-in on Monet’s post, saying, “Moving forward we will take a double take on things being shared. But, the info shared still stands. These bills listed and so many other bills are harmful to/for Floridians.”
“Nobody is disputing the terribleness of these bills, but this isn’t an either/or situation,” responded Monet. “Dropping the ball on the beginning of gender identity-based Jim Crow for trans Floridians is a stunning oversight and deserves more than an ‘oops, we’ll do better.’ It confirms our worst fears that FL Dems won’t fight for us as a party because trans people aren’t considered a ‘winning issue’ as we were told by the party during the midterms. And to be clear, others have brought this particular oversight to party leadership and got no response. As trans Floridians we deserve better and more accountability.”
Following that exchange, the Blade reached out to Florida Democrats, via social media and email, requesting a comment, and information about whether the party employed any queer staff who might have noted the omission. We received no response until Tuesday, when a spokesperson claimed in an email that the anti-trans laws were deliberately left out because of pending legal action, and blaming the “format” of the graphic it created for its post.
“Due to the limited nature of the format, we chose to highlight the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ expansion because the worst of the anti-trans bills are currently being challenged in the courts,” the party spokesperson wrote. That claim was swiftly exposed as inaccurate, which led the spokesperson to call the Blade on Wednesday to withdraw their original response and email a new one:
“We will continue to be a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ communities and the repeal of Florida’s anti-trans bathroom bill as we approach the upcoming legislative session,” said the spokesperson for the Florida Democrats in their revised response. “Florida is on the frontlines of our fight for freedom and democracy and hundreds of laws passed by this conservative supermajority legislature took effect on July 1, 2023. It is our role as a party to continue to be vocal as the consequences of these extreme and dangerous laws unravel.”
But as of publication of this article, there still isn’t anything on the Florida Democrats’ website or their social media accounts backing up that statement.
However, the party did post something on social media last Wednesday, including Facebook, celebrating Nonbinary Awareness Week, which the spokesperson said was delayed due to its concentration on responding to the state’s property insurance crisis.
“It was pushed back to later in the week,” the spokesperson told the Blade, but remained on what they called the party’s “content calendar.” When the spokesperson was reminded, “Nonbinary Floridians own property, too,” the post celebrating their special week appeared not long after.
As for queer personnel, the Blade learned from an internal source who asked not to be identified that the party’s staff does include at least one gender nonconforming individual, whose identity was concealed for privacy reasons.
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