The Florida’s tourism marketing site quietly took down part of its website dedicated to attracting LGBTQ visitors.
For years, LGBTQ travelers have flocked to cities and towns like St. Petersburg, Key West and Sarasota, which have been welcoming to them. Visit Florida’s website once contained a robust marketing section on its website that once promoted Pride events and popular destinations for LGBTQ travelers.
For example, the site had dedicated pages promoting Florida’s top 10 gay beaches and LGBTQ-friendly destinations. But anyone who had the page bookmarked and tries to go to that section now will end up at a generic "Things To Do" page instead.
Although no one has been able to pinpoint exactly when the pages were removed, it had happened sometime this summer. Some residents, activists and people in the local tourism industry said that erasing the pages sends the message that LGBTQ travelers aren’t welcome in the state.
Asked Republican Gov. DeSantis about, he simply said: “Our view as a state is we are the best place to visit, we’re welcome to all, but we’re not going to be segregating people by these different characteristics.”
Ever since the known "Don't Say Gay" law was passed, DeSantis has turned Florida into a test kitchen for anti-LGBTQ restrictions that have since spread to other Republican states.
Biden-Harris’ Administration issued a strong statement against this anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida. Secretary Pete Buttigieg replied this is an absolutely dangerous legislation: “And the reason is that it tells youth who are different or whose families are different that there’s something wrong with them out of the gate".
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