As today marks the very first day of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Tallahassee, Florida is currently in a cultural war over Transgender rights. Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill that restricts public schools to allow transgender athletes who are born female to do sports.
This new law has added to the controversy between citizens and the republican party because of the continuous narrative that republicans are known to be restrictive towards the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. “In Florida, girls are going to play girl sports and boys are going to play boy sports.” said DeSantis at the Christian academy in Jacksonville where the law was made official.
According to ABC7, NCAA claimed that they will relocate championship games to “locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination”. In response, the NCAA had threatened to relocate important games from areas that discriminated or limited the rights of the players.
It is said that not only are Transgender rights being violated by this law but Floridians will have to also face the consequences. Floridians are expected to see some economic harm, taxpayer legal battles, and a tarnished reputation as a result of this anti-transgender law.
Although many Floridians and non Floridians believe this to be a very discriminative law, politicians such as Senator Kelli Stargel believe the opposite. Senator Stargel stated the following, “This is nothing about anybody being discriminated against” and “It’s solely so that women have an opportunity to compete in women's sports”.
Do you agree with what Governor DeSantis is doing? Let us know.
By: Julie Lima