Last Tuesday was one of our favorite events in Tallahassee, Equality Florida’s Pride at the Capitol. Advocates from around the State of Florida gathered in the Capitol to meet with lawmakers to push for a more equal and fair Florida for LGBTQ+ people. We not only had the pleasure of attending, but Rep. Eskamani also had the honor of speaking alongside her colleagues and other advocates. The event kicked off with everyone meeting on the historic Florida Capitol steps where a crowd of people were waiting. It was quite chilly outside, so once gathered we headed inside where it was fortunately warmer. We made our way to the fourth floor of the Capitol and gathered under the rotunda to hear the event’s speakers.
The first speaker, former Florida House Representative Joe Saunders, started the press conference by thanking the almost 300 people who had come to advocate LGBTQ+ rights in the State of Florida. Joe Saunders denounced the filed bills that target LGBTQ+ people and proudly stated “We’re going to speak today about a Florida where we, not Tallahassee politicians, get to make decisions about our own health care, about what we read about, and who we love.”
Once former Representative Joe Sauders finished speaking he introduced State Senator Shevrin Jones. Senator Jones called out the hypocrisy that permeates through the halls of the legislature. While Representatives celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Day, they do this while supporting bills that engage in bigotry he spent his life trying to fight. State Senator Jones emphasized “This fight is bigger than us… And this fight will carry on from even once our children and their children’s children when they are born and they walk this earth. You have to be ensured that the fight that we leave here, the mark that we leave here today, that they remember and they know that we were here because we know we exist.”
After Senator Jones concluded, he introduced State Senator Tracie Davis of Jacksonville. She focused on the issues surrounding gender identity in school, and the several attempts to make transgender students’ lives more difficult in school. “People will always find a way to come together and strive. Black and queer culture, books, art, and media have always been fundamental to education and this society as a whole”, she exclaimed in front of a crowd of black and queer people with their allies.
Following State Senator Davis’s remarks, House Rep. Michelle Reyner was introduced to the crowd with great applause. She spoke on two bills: SB 1404, the Health Care Freedom Act, and HB 1355, the Freedom to Learn Act. While addressing the Republican supermajority in the Florida Legislature, Representative Reyner said: “The supermajority that you think you have … the thing that you think you have will no longer be anywhere because the people, the queers, the gays, the trans siblings, those that you have pushed to the side, we are making our voice heard and we are done. Enough is enough…”
As Rep. Reyner’s words came to a close, our State House Representative Eskamani was introduced as the next speaker. The Representative brought up the hypocrisy that many of the people pushing these discriminatory bills exhibit; she mentions the case of Bridget Ziegler, one of the founding members of Moms For Liberty, and her husband Christian Ziegler, Chairman of the Florida GOP. Speaking on the current strategy of the Florida GOP, Rep. Eskamani pointedly said: “These fear tactics are designed to divide, deflect, and distract because my colleagues don’t have solutions to solve things like property insurance or passing affordability. Instead of holding corporations accountable for making life harder in this state, they are going to attack you instead.”
As Eskmani’s speech concluded, we got to hear from the Executive Director of Equality Florida Nadine Smith, who has been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ rights in Florida for decades. Smith further emphasized the hypocrisy surrounding many of those who push these anti-LGBTQ+ bills, as many of those that sought to strip queer people of their rights had previously announced their support for LGBTQ+ rights when it was politically advantageous. Nadine Smith later posed a question to the people of Florida, she asked: “Ask yourself, why are you being taught to hate your neighbor? Why are you being drawn to messages that dehumanize and vilify? Why would you think that I as a parent would want less for my kid than you want for yours?”
As Nadine Smith finished her words, she brought out her new colleague and the final speaker, Angelique Godwin. Angelique Godwin is a transgender Afro-Latina woman and a new member of the Equality Florida team. Godwin explained how even despite all the legislation that the GOP continues to push, she still finds a way to get up and continue living her true life in defiance. “You haven’t stopped us, you’ve ignited the fire, you’ve become gasoline, and baby we are going to burn like the books and bras of the past”.