(OPINION) Many Pride groups in Florida are canceling the month-filled celebrations as multiple anti-LGBTQ bills hitting the state have left the community, and its allies, fearful of repercussions. Lake County Pride’s events, however, are moving ahead.
“It’s not exactly being welcomed by the community where we’re having it. In fact, yesterday I just got a cease and desist from them, telling me not to mention them at all.
They don’t want this to take place, but we’re gonna persevere,” the group’s President and CEO Danielle Olivani says on this episode of The New Abnormal politics podcast.
“We’re gonna have this Pride, because we’re fully within our rights to do so. And you know, we’re just gonna deal with things as they go. But right now, it’s a mixture of apprehension, fear. Yet, I’m hopeful at the same time.”
Olivani also shares with TNA co-host Danielle Moodie what it’s like to be a member of the LGBTQ community at this time, in such a rural part of the state at that (“there’s no tolerance here”), and the impact that the bans have been having on the youth of the community especially.
They also say that the recent legislation under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now also a 2024 presidential candidate, has triggered what they’d call a “mass migration” out of the state. “It’s too much,” they say. (READ MORE)
