Florida Removes LGBTQ+ Travel From State Website

Florida Removes LGBTQ+ Travel From State Website

With the season of summer in full force, some of us gays are still deciding where to vacation before the winter gets here. Even though Florida is known for some of the gayest summer places such as Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West, the state is not showing us much travel love. The gay hot spots have everything you could want - beaches with hot gays roaming around, nightclubs and bars to fit any gay crowd, and a vibrant cruising scene. But without warning or announcement, the state has removed any LGBTQ+-related travel information from its website.

 

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The site, called Visit Florida, is by the state and its tourism industry. Floriday spends around $50 million to the agency from its economic and tourism funds. Overall, Florida ranks among the top-visited US cities with 141 million tourists each year who bring in more than $102 billion. A large portion of that is gay money!

Visit Florida's website used to read, "There's a sense of freedom to Florida's beaches, the warm weather and the myriad activities – a draw for people of all orientations, but especially appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance." Not anymore. While some LGBTQ search queries will pull up minimal results, the entire LGBTQ section of the site has been deleted. No one really knows when, and NBC was the first to notice.

 

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Queer business owners stated that this was just the latest attempt by the government of Florida to eradicate the community. We know that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been the leader in that movement by trying to ban drag shows, restrict any LGBTQ verbiage or representation in schools, and ban any gender-affirming medical services for youth. This will surely affect the economy but unfortunately will hit queer-related businesses first as a number of the gay population take Florida out of their travel plans. This last year a number of civil rights groups issued a travel advisory for the state, saying it was a hostile environment for people of color and the queer community.

It is important to note that a number of cities are inclusive, despite the politics of the government and there are queer elected officials. Unfortunately, the power up at the top is driving this anti-LGBTQ sentiment. Why should we want to spend our gay money in a state that doesn't want us? On the other hand, our queer family and queer business community in those states will suffer. What are we supposed to do?

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