‘EXTRAORDINARY STEP’

Florida Civil Rights Group Issues Travel Advisory to LGBTQ+ Tourists

Equality Florida said it was issuing the advisory after the passage of “hostile” laws attacking the LGBTQ+ community, women, racial minorities, and the public education system.

Florida’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization on Wednesday issued a rare travel advisory warning the queer community against coming to the state. “Florida may not be a safe place to move or visit,” Florida Equality’s memorandum’s headline blared in capital letters. In a statement accompanying the warning, the group said that the “extraordinary step” was being taken in response to a wave of safety inquiries it had received “following the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum.” The move comes just weeks after the Florida chapter of the NAACP voted unanimously to ask its national headquarters to issue a similar travel advisory to Black Americans over what it called “draconian” legislation.