Hobby Lobby is funding the latest push to end marriage equality

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Earlier this year, a group of 47 anti-LGBTQ+ organizations launched a new campaign to end marriage equality in the U.S., demanding that the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. The campaign, called “Greater Than” – a response to the push for equality by claiming that straight people are “greater than” queer people – immediately got the media’s attention.

Now the Seattle Times has revealed that a key organization behind the Greater Than campaign is being funded by the conservative Christian business Hobby Lobby, the same business that got the Supreme Court to rule in 2014 that for-profit corporations don’t have to pay for employees’ health care that covers contraception if that contraception goes against the corporation’s religious beliefs.

Katy Faust is the founder and president of Them Before Us, an organization devoted to ending marriage rights for same-sex couples in the U.S. Faust’s mother is a lesbian who came out after marrying Faust’s father, and her parents divorced when she was 10. She converted to Christianity a few years later, when she was in high school.

Faust insists that she didn’t devote her life to attacking LGBTQ+ rights out of some kind of resentment towards her mother, although she now says she no longer considers her mother a parent.

The Seattle Times notes that Faust has been campaigning against marriage rights since at least 2012, when she started a blog called “Ask The Bigot,” a website she claimed would “debunk” the notion that marriage rights opponents are bigots.

She advocated for ending marriage rights over the years, but saw an opportunity for a renewed push after the Supreme Court overturned federal reproductive rights protections guaranteed in Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Court effectively let states decide whether abortion would be legal, and many of them immediately banned it, something people like Faust hope to see happen for same-sex marriage.

And the recent push is getting more funding. Them Before Us was founded in 2018, and its IRS reports show that it received less than $50,000 in revenue for its first few years of operation before Roe was overturned. In 2022, though, it received $200,000. In 2024, that became nearly $1 million, and Faust collected a salary of $135,000.

Them Before Us’s 2024 filings show a $300,000 donation from The Servant Foundation, a Christian organization funded by Hobby Lobby’s founder, David Green, and his family. It’s the same organization behind those “He Gets Us” ads about Jesus that ran during the 2024 and 2025 Super Bowls.

Them Before Us – referring to how children’s interests should come before adults’ – is attempting to refocus the debate on marriage rights around children in order to capitalize on the recent moral panic around “groomers,” a push from the right that started in the early 2020s to associate LGBTQ+ people with child sex abuse once again.

Faust claims that marriage equality has made children’s lives worse, contrary to what social science says on the matterShe said in a March Uncloseted Media interview that there is no “right to adopt” but that children “have a natural right to be known and loved by their mother and father.”

Faust herself has adopted a child who is from China.

Federal judge blocks FTC probes into trans medicine groups, citing ‘extensive evidence of animus’

Read more at the Advocate.

President Donald Trump suffered a pair of legal setbacks Thursday after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked the Federal Trade Commission from enforcing investigative demands against two of the nation’s most influential medical organizations involved in transgender health care guidance.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted preliminary injunctions to both the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society, temporarily halting FTC investigations that the groups argued were politically motivated and unconstitutional.

The FTC investigations began earlier this year amid the administration’s broader effort to target institutions connected to gender-affirming treatment for trans youth. The agency issued civil investigative demands, or CIDs, seeking years of internal records, communications, financial information, conference materials, and documents related to medical guidance on transgender care.

In separate lawsuits filed in D.C., WPATH and the Endocrine Society accused the administration of weaponizing federal investigative powers to intimidate organizations that support evidence-based medical care for transgender patients.

The complaints argued the FTC was not conducting ordinary consumer protection oversight, but instead attempting to chill scientific debate, suppress protected medical speech, and deter physicians and researchers from participating in discussions about health care for transgender people.

Boasberg appeared deeply skeptical of the administration’s motives in both rulings, repeatedly pointing to what he described as evidence of hostility toward the organizations and their views on clinical standards for gender dysphoria treatment.

In the WPATH ruling, Boasberg wrote that the record “strongly suggests that the CID was issued at least in part because of hostility toward WPATH’s viewpoint and advocacy regarding transgender care.”

The judge explicitly tied that conclusion to the administration’s broader conduct surrounding transgender health care. “This Court’s Opinion in the parallel suit brought by the Endocrine Society details the range and depth of animus displayed by the President and agency leadership toward gender-affirming care,” Boasberg wrote.

He went further, writing that “[t]he circumstantial evidence of animus towards WPATH overlaps significantly with the record in the Endocrine Society’s case,” particularly through what he described as a “pattern of litigation and information demands” alongside “articulated hostility towards proponents of gender-affirming care.”

In one of the ruling’s sharpest passages, Boasberg concluded that “[o]n this preliminary record, with extensive evidence of animus and wafer-thin justifications lacking evidentiary support, it finds that WPATH is likely to demonstrate a causal link between its protected speech and the FTC’s issuance of the CID.”

Boasberg also noted that administration officials had publicly attacked WPATH before the FTC investigation began, including statements accusing the organization of lacking “scientific integrity” and contributing to “blatant harm done to children.”

At another point, the judge wrote that the evidence supported an inference of “viewpoint-based animus” toward WPATH and its advocacy surrounding gender-affirming care.

The court additionally found evidence that the investigation had already chilled protected speech and association. According to the opinion, WPATH leaders testified that they had curtailed educational programming and altered internal communications due to fears of retaliation and disclosure of sensitive member information.

“WPATH welcomes the Court’s decision to grant our request for a preliminary injunction against this unlawful and retaliatory investigative demand by the FTC,” the organization said in a statement to The Advocate late Thursday. “We are hopeful that this preliminary injunction will prevent further harm to the First Amendment rights of WPATH and its members.”

“For more than 50 years, WPATH has been committed to developing guidelines informed by established scientific standards, expert consensus, and patient-centered values,” the organization added. “WPATH’s dedication to this mission and the patient population it serves remains unwavering.”

In the parallel Endocrine Society case, Boasberg similarly warned that the FTC’s actions threatened constitutionally protected scientific discourse and associational rights. He wrote that the record raised “serious concerns that the agency’s investigatory power is being used not to police commercial fraud, but to target disfavored speech and advocacy.”

The judge also emphasized the breadth of the FTC’s demands, which sought years’ worth of records related to publications, internal deliberations, and communications involving transgender care recommendations. Boasberg concluded that the organizations had shown evidence of “ongoing self-censorship and withdrawal from protected expressive activity” as a result of the investigations.

“The D.C. District Court ruling is an important victory that recognizes medical guidelines are a valued resource that allow doctors to support patients in making decisions about their care,” the Endocrine Society said in a statement to The Advocate on Friday. “This ruling sends a powerful message that government efforts to pressure the medical and scientific community to abandon evidence-based practices are not permissible.”

The statement continued, “In addition to affirming the Endocrine Society’s First Amendment right to speak freely on matters of public health, the court recognized the chilling effect the government’s actions have on the Society’s work and the harm to public interest. This decision is a helpful step in ensuring the Endocrine Society can continue to advance endocrine health and patient well-being by providing clinicians with medically sound, evidence-based information.”

The rulings arrive as federal courts increasingly scrutinize whether the administration’s policies targeting transgender people and transgender health care are rooted in evidence or animus.

In Talbott v. United States, the ongoing challenge to the administration’s transgender military ban in D.C. courts, Judge Ana Reyes previously wrote that the policy was “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext.” Reyes also criticized government arguments portraying transgender service members as inherently dishonest or unstable, describing aspects of the administration’s rhetoric as evidence of unadulterated animus.

Boasberg’s rulings are not final decisions on the merits of either case, but they temporarily block the FTC from enforcing the investigative demands while the lawsuits proceed.

Ohio Republicans are trying to strip transgender adults of health insurance coverage

Read more at the Advocate.

Ohio Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.) has introduced his latest bill in his crusade against transgender Ohioans.

Williams introduced HB 838 last Thursday. The bill would prohibit Medicaid from covering most gender-affirming surgeries and procedures for transgender Ohioans and ban state and local municipalities from providing a contract to their employees that includes “coverage, benefits, or services for gender reassignment surgery.”

The legislation also stipulates that if these benefits are offered, the cost would then be subtracted from the local authority’s “local government fund payments,” the revenue-sharing portion of the state’s General Revenue Fund.

The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee.

Williams has broken a record, introducing more than 100 bills in a single General Assembly as he runs for a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Six of those bills are explicitly anti-LGBTQ+, complementing his public statements that it would be “harmful to society” to affirm trans identity.

  • HB 249 (“The Indecent Exposure Modernization Act”), which would ban drag and gender performance in public spaces where minors are present. (Status: The bill passed the Ohio House and now moves to the Ohio Senate.)
  • HB 262, to designate “Natural Family Month,” to celebrate only heterosexual married couples with children. (Status: The bill is sitting in a House committee; three hearings have been held.)
  • HB 693 (“The Affirming Families First Act”), to grant protections to parents who reject their trans children. (Status: The bill is sitting in a House committee; two hearings have been held.)
  • HB 796 to ensure that all incarcerated people in state custody are housed according to the state’s definition of “biological sex.” (Status: The bill has been introduced, but not assigned to a committee.)
  • HB 798 (“The Privacy Protection Act”) that would limit trans Ohioans’ access to public bathrooms and ban Ohioans from being able to change the sex marker on birth and death certificates. (Status: The bill has been introduced, but not assigned to a committee.)

In the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, the city’s robust “Gender Freedom Policy” would protect LGBTQ+ employees from the effects of HB 838.

The policy was introduced by Council President Sarah Kepple and out LGBTQ+ Councilmember Cindy Strebig, and will allow the city to provide medical coverage for transgender employees and covered family members who seek gender-affirming care, “even if such care must legally be provided outside the State of Ohio.”

“This is another attempt by the Republican led and out of touch state government to draw attention away from their continued failure to serve Ohioans,” Strebig told The Buckeye Flame. “I will continue to fight for my community and the dignity and respect of all people.”

Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, said that HB 838 is just the latest bill in an “exhausting pattern of a single politician repeatedly targeting transgender Ohioans instead of addressing the real challenges facing our state.”

“Continued increasing of restrictions and limitations to healthcare undermines the safety, health and wellbeing of not only trans Ohioans but everyone,” Adkison said.

Adkison called HB 838 “reprehensible,” but reminded Ohioans that the bill was just introduced and is not law.

“Everyone deserves the ability to make informed decisions about their own healthcare, and every municipality deserves to maintain the authority over what will be covered by city employee insurance plans,” Adkison said.

Trans Rights Crisis in Texas | Why People Are Leaving & What’s at Stake

In this episode of Flee Red States, we talk to REALTOR Reagan Breaux to get first hand knowledge of what is changing in LGBTQ rights.

🏳️‍⚧️ What is happening to trans rights in Texas right now?

In this powerful and urgent conversation, we break down the real-world impact of new policies, political rhetoric, and federal rollbacks affecting transgender people across Texas.

This isn’t theoretical — it’s happening now.

⚠️ In this video, we discuss:

How recent federal interpretations and directives are affecting Fair Housing protections
Why some LGBTQ+ individuals feel they are being targeted or labeled as threats
The growing concern that housing rights and property ownership could be restricted
Why HUD is no longer accepting certain housing discrimination complaints
How money flowing through PACs may be supporting policies that harm LGBTQ communities
The urgent need for education among both real estate agents and consumers

💬 One of the biggest questions raised:
If protections disappear… who do you even report discrimination to?

This conversation also explores a deeper concern:
👉 What happens when people are forced to move?
👉 What happens to their wealth, their homes, and their safety?

📢 This is part of the broader conversation around LGBTQ civil rights, migration, and the future of equality in the United States.

If you are an agent, a homeowner, or someone concerned about where things are heading — this video is essential.

Middle school for LGBTQ+ and bullied students opening in August in Boca Raton FL

Read more at CBS 12 News.

The Acceptance Academy Community School, a private, nonprofit middle school serving LGBTQ+ students, bullied youth, and those who struggle to thrive in traditional school environments, is now accepting applications for the August 2026 semester at its Boca Raton campus.

Serving students in grades 6 through 8, The Acceptance Academy is the first school of its kind in Florida and participates in the Step Up for Students scholarship (voucher) program.

“Students at The Acceptance Academy Community School will receive a strong academic foundation in a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment,” said Stephen Gaskill, co-founder and president of The Acceptance Academy Foundation, the 501(c)(3) organization that operates the school. “We focus not only on academic excellence but also on character development, giving students the opportunity to learn and grow alongside peers who share similar experiences.”

The need for specialized, supportive educational environments is increasing. According to a recent report from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), many students reported a more hostile school climate during the 2024–2025 academic year amid heightened anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Key findings include:

  • Two in three students reported feeling unsafe due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
  • Only one in three LGBTQ+ students frequently look forward to attending school
  • More than half (53%) experienced LGBTQ+-related discrimination, including restricted access to facilities aligned with their gender identity

“Students succeed when they feel supported—by both their peers and the adults around them,” said Dr. Mindy Koch, Ed.D., co-founder and principal of The Acceptance Academy Community School. “Our classrooms emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving, and real-world application, preparing students to navigate life with confidence.”

The school is located in the heart of Boca Raton and offers access to a state-of-the-art gym, music room, library, extracurricular programs, and after-school activities.

Applications are now open for the August semester. Small class sizes ensure personalized, hands-on learning, allowing every student to actively participate and excel. Students from Palm Beach and Broward Counties are welcome, whether transitioning from public school, private school, or homeschooling.

“There’s a real demand for a safe space for kids to learn and to be themselves and middle school years are particularly the time when kids are starting to grow. That’s why we’re focusing on that age area,” Gaskill said.

“Hopefully a school like this gives them the opportunity to figure out how to negotiate and work together with other people who are not totally like them and be successful in the world,” Dr. Koch explained.

But the idea of a school focused on LGBTQ+ students is also raising questions, including concerns about safety.

“What kind of security measures do you plan to have around the school? Because there may be people who would, you hate to say it, may want to act out against the LGBTQ community if they know a number of students are here,” we asked Gaskill. “Well, certainly we hope that that’s not the case, but we have significant security and the building is secure and I just want to leave it that,” he said.

We also asked people in the community what they think.

“The kids want it then I want it. But realistically speaking, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. If you’re ridiculed in school, I think you have to learn with it when you’re that age,” said Richard Young, a Boca Raton resident.

“I think we need to support it as a community,” said Sal Cohen, a Wellington resident.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea and very needed,” said Donna Traum, a Boca Raton resident.

Tuition is approximately half the cost of many private schools in Palm Beach County. Tuition is $20,000 a year. With an $8,000 state voucher, families would pay about $12,000. The first day of classes for the 2026–2027 school year is Monday, August 10, 2026.

The Acceptance Academy Foundation also welcomes tax-deductible contributions from individuals and organizations to support its mission.

The Acceptance Academy Foundation was founded by Dr. Mindy Koch and Stephen Gaskill, both of whom bring decades of experience in education and public service and share a commitment to the school’s long-term success.

Dr. Mindy Koch has served in Florida’s education system for more than 40 years as a teacher, department chair, administrator, and principal across elementary, middle, and high school levels in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. An award-winning educator, she has developed curricula, managed faculty, and overseen institutional budgets. She also founded Educational Extra, Inc., a SACS-accredited nonprofit providing summer academic programs. Dr. Koch serves as principal of The Acceptance Academy Community School.

European Parliament adopts measure to ban conversion therapy

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The European Parliament voted in favor of a ban on conversion therapy this Wednesday. The demand is now being sent to the European Commission for a response.

The move comes after the European Citizens’ Initiative successfully petitioned the European Parliament to take up the issue. Starting in 2024, the ECI gathered over 1.2 million signatures from EU citizens to ban conversion therapy.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a debate on the matter earlier this week, which resulted in the committee adopting two opinions, one calling for stronger enforcement of the EU’s LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030 and the other calling for a ban on conversion therapy throughout the EU.

While seven member states ban conversion therapy, including France, Portugal, and Spain, speakers at the EESC pointed out that conversion therapy is still practiced in parts of the EU.

“These so-called conversion practices or therapies are not only harmful, they are a profound violation of human dignity and fundamental rights,” said EESC President Séamus Boland during the debate, according to an EESC release. “Let us be absolutely clear: there is nothing to fix or cure. What needs to change is not people, but the systems, attitudes, and structures that deny them their dignity.”

Graeme Reid, the United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, also spoke during the debate, saying that banning conversion therapy is key to the EU meeting its human rights obligations and that “every person has the right to live free from coercion, fear and shame.”

Then, in a vote on Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted an opinion demanding a ban on conversion therapy practices.

The demand will be sent to the European Commission, the only body that can introduce binding legislation, which will then send it back to Parliament.

New HUD Proposal Targets Trans Housing Protections

Read more at Truthout.

A newly proposed rule within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would target transgender people, allowing federally funded shelters and housing providers receiving funds from the government to discriminate on the basis of gender.

The HUD proposal purportedly “harmonizes” the department’s existing Equal Access regulations with President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive order he issued on the first day of his second term. That order errantly equates gender with sex, and has been challenged in other realms of the federal government for its discriminatory nature.

The rule change would remove terms like “gender” and “gender identity,” replacing them instead with the word “sex.” Gender is generally understood as “a social construct expressed and reinforced by norms, behaviors, and roles assigned to people based on their perceived sex,” and is understood by scientists as not being binary, whereas sex is based on an individual’s arrangement of chromosomes.

The HUD proposal would allow housing partners of the federal government to resume discrimination against people seeking housing based on gender, rolling back standards that were implemented during the Obama administration.

The change appears to be religiously motivated, as HUD Secretary Scott Turner — a noted Christian nationalist — announced the proposed rule by citing his personal beliefs.

“God created two sexes: male and female,” Turner said. “The Left’s war on biological reality through radical gender ideology will no longer take precedence.”

Notably, Turner had already directed the department to stop enforcing current rules protecting people from discrimination based on gender last year. The rule change formalizes that action.

Research demonstrates that transgender people face enormous difficulties in securing housing, with one study from 2022 demonstrating that nearly one-third of trans people have been unhoused in their lifetimes.

Deborah Thrope, chief program officer for the National Housing Law Project, decried the new HUD proposal, stating that it is a “baseless assault by the Trump administration” against LGBTQ people.

Describing the rule as a “cruel proposal,” Thrope added:

Not only will the proposed policies directly harm families and communities, they will increase costs for state and local governments, hospital systems, and social services agencies by forcing more housing insecure people to live on the street rather than in shelter.

“Our country has the resources to ensure that all of us have a roof over our heads, and we are steadfast in our commitment to fight alongside LGBTQ+ tenants and neighbors until we’re all stably housed,” Thrope said.

Botswana officially removed its anti-sodomy law from its Penal Code

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Botswana’s anti-sodomy law has been officially repealed.

Section 164 of the Southern African nation’s Penal Code used to ban sodomy and carried a possible seven-year sentence with it. But in 2019, the country’s High Court ruled unanimously that the law was unconstitutional.

“Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalized,” wrote Judge Michael Leburu for the court at the time. “Sexual orientation is not a fashion statement. It is an important attribute of one’s personality.”

“Personal autonomy on matters of sexual preference and choice must, therefore, be respected. Any criminalization of love or finding fulfillment in love dilutes compassion and tolerance.”

The government appealed, but the appeal was refused in 2021, leaving Section 164 unenforceable.

But the South African LGBTQ+ outlet Mamba Online now reports that Botswana’s government amended its Penal Code to remove paragraphs a and c of Section 164. The only part of the section that remains bans bestiality. The change was carried out by Botswana Attorney General Dick Bayford.

The Botswanan LGBTQ+ organization LeGaBiBo hailed the change, saying it sends “a clear message that LGBTIQ+ persons are not criminals, and that their lives and relationships deserve protection, not punishment.”

“For many, these provisions were not just words on paper – they were lived realities,” the group said. “They affected access to healthcare, safety, employment, and the freedom to love and exist openly.”

LGBTQ+ people in Botswana have some rights and protections that they aren’t granted in other countries in the region. LGBTQ+ people are able to serve in the military, and the country has banned job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 2010. Trans people have been able to correct gender markers on government paperwork since a High Court ruling in 2017.

There is currently a gay couple suing the government for marriage rights, according to Mamba Online.

State Department bans trans employees from using the appropriate restrooms at work

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The State Department announced on Monday a new policy that will ban trans employees from using the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Right-wing news site, The Daily Signal, reports that they obtained a memo from the State Department titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms.” The memo says, “ACTION: Post must abide by the President’s directive in E.O. 14168, ensuring intimate spaces are designated by biological sex.”

The memo is designed to update the State Department’s policies in line with Donald Trump’s January 2024 anti-trans executive order, which declared that there were only “two sexes” and that they were immutable. While not a legal action in its own right, an executive order instructs the federal government on how Trump would like laws to be implemented.

Several federal agencies had already implemented an anti-trans bathroom ban, but the State Department had not previously made its own policy.

In July of 2025, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent out a memo instructing all federal agencies to bring themselves in line with the executive order, with the stated goal of “Ending Gender Ideology in the Federal Workplace and Protecting Women.”

That order included a note that all agencies should have “ensured that intimate spaces (such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and lactation rooms) at Federal worksites designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity.”

The State Department’s delay in implementing a bathroom ban likely doesn’t stem from Secretary of State Marco Rubio having empathy for the trans community, but rather from a case before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Last summer, a transgender person filed a complaint with the EEOC after being denied access to the appropriate restrooms and “intimate spaces.” A decision was reached by the commission in February, which upheld that “Title VII permits a federal agency employer to maintain single-sex bathrooms and similar intimate spaces,” and “permits a federal agency employer to exclude employees, including trans-identifying employees, from opposite-sex facilities.”

Title VII is the federal law that bans job discrimination on the basis of sex. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton Co. that Title VII’s ban on sex-based discrimination also bans anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, since it’s impossible to discriminate against trans or queer people without taking their sex assigned at birth into account.

The guidance goes against previous recommendations from OSHA, which stated: “The core belief underlying these policies is that all employees should be permitted to use the facilities that correspond with their gender identity. For example, a person who identifies as a man should be permitted to use men’s restrooms, and a person who identifies as a woman should be permitted to use women’s restrooms.”

Those guidelines were removed from the Department of Labor’s website at some point between January 15, 2025, and February 1, 2025.

The Daily Signal touted the new policy under the headline “Rubio Cracks Down on Men in Women’s Restrooms.” That can be added to his resume, alongside defunding USAID so that thousands will suffer from HIV and changing the State Department’s default font because the old typeface was too “woke.”

“Banning transgender people from using facilities in alignment with their gender identity deprives them of the ability to participate in public life,” Advocates for Trans Equality’s website notes. “Without the ability to use a public restroom, trans people are less able to live their lives and travel outside their home. Trans employees need to be able to use the restroom at work to keep their jobs without risking their health and safety.”

“Transgender people cannot safely use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth just because the law requires them to. Trans people are routinely subjected to harassment and assault in bathrooms. Sixty-eight percent of trans people have been verbally harassed, and 9% have been physically assaulted when using a public restroom in the past 12 months. And sadly, 8% of trans people have faced a kidney or urinary tract infection from having to avoid restrooms for their safety.”

Ron DeSantis signs law that could strip Florida of Pride celebrations

Read more at the Advocate.

Florida has already largely derailed the promotion of diversity by the state, and a new law now threatens Pride events across the state.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits any local government in Florida from making diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. That’s part of a long battle against so-called DEI in the state, which has already banned the values in higher education. He deployed significant white grievance language as he signed legislation at a ceremony in Central Florida.

“I would think with DEI ⁠the disfavored groups, number one obviously, would be white males and I think they’ve been discriminated against,” DeSantis said.

The bill allows individuals to sue local governments that implement DEI programs.

The legislation, according to Florida Politics, defines DEI as efforts to “manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation other than to ensure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”

But LGBTQ+ advocates have specifically voiced concern that this could shut down Pride events.

“It threatens nondiscrimination ordinances, specialized community health programs, recognizing culturally significant events like Pride Month or Black History Month, and more,” reads an opposition statement from Equality Florida.

Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe, a Republican representing Miami Beach, has suggested otherwise.

“Pride is not under threat, and it definitely isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “If anything, this moment presents an opportunity to both strengthen and expand the event and ensure it continues to thrive for decades to come as a cultural festival that celebrates community, supports local businesses, and contributes to the vitality of Miami Beach.”

Critics say the new law still allows equal opportunity programs and for cultural events to take place in Florida cities. But it doesn’t allow cities to run programs promoting diversity.

“The bill is necessary because cities and counties have been funding and promoting divisive activities under the guise of DEI,” said Florida Sen. Clay Yarborough.

The law goes into effect on January 1.

Equality Florida did convince lawmakers to make carve-outs in the law to allow preservation of the Pulse memorial in Orlando and for states to issue permits, but not promote Pride. But the law remains an existential threat, the group’s leadership said.

“This law is deeply concerning and deliberately vague, sending a clear message that celebrating diversity and supporting LGBTQ Floridians can carry legal and political risk. It targets not only local governments but every community that works to create inclusive, welcoming spaces. Our communities have faced unjust laws before, and responded with resilience, strength, and solidarity,” said Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida’s Public Policy Director.

“Equality Florida will continue to stand with local leaders, community organizations, and residents to ensure that LGBTQ people remain visible, celebrated, and supported. Pride will continue, programs that support inclusion will continue, and our communities will remain strong despite attempts to intimidate or silence them.”

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