It figures that I go on vacation and LGBTQ travel becomes headline news. Now that I’m back from an epic South of France road trip, I wanted to take a minute to share why I’m not mad at Florida’s tourism marketing organization for removing information geared toward LGBTQ travelers โ why I believe their decision is in the best interests of LGBTQ tourists.
Visit Florida is the state’s tourism marketing company. Its goal is to promote Florida as an attractive place to visit. They accomplish this by providing journalists with information needed to pitch and write stories about the destination (shoutout to Travel Oregon, whose website is a beacon of how this can be deeply engaging, and who does a banger job of promoting LGBTQ travel), provide travel consumers (folks like you and me) with information needed to plan vacations, and suggest itineraries and things to do and see in the state.
See New Orleansโ tourism marketing agencyโs Mystical &Haunted Things to Do section โ super relevant to this time of year and the city’s general vibe โ for an example of consumer-facing content orgs like Visit Florida create.
So when Visit Florida’s removed content geared toward LGBTQ tourists โ while leaving intact pages geared toward Black and Latine tourists โ the general public perceived it as a sign of anti-queer hostility and freaked the hell out.
Equality Florida Nadine Smith told The New York Times that demographics-specific webpages exist to make travelers feel welcome, safe and comfortable. Removing those webpages send the message that “โWe do not want you to feel safe and welcome.โโ
Leaving aside the obvious for a moment, other state tourism boards saw an opportunity and jumped in, loudly rolling out pro-LGBTQ travel campaigns. Shoutout to Connecticut and Illinois for launching queer-inclusive tourism campaigns, and Colorado’s governor Jared Polis, who is gay, for the Facebook invite to check out what Colorado has to offer LGBTQ tourists.
In the current highly polarized political climate, LGBTQ travelers need reminders of where we are welcomed and accepted. We need safe spaces where we can take our families and partners without feeling like the target is painted on our backs.
Check out which states are the best for LGBTQ families and which states to avoid.
This is precisely why I’m not mad at Visit Florida. They did the right thing by admitting that Florida was no longer a good choice for LGBTQ vacations โ something US LGBTQ travel advisories had pointed out last year.
Inclusive cities like Fort Lauderdale have responded to the kerfuffle over LGBTQ travel to Florida by begging queer travelers not to quit the state and assuring us we are still welcome.
Watching them trip over themselves to assure us (or themselves) they’re a think pink dot in a homophobic state, it’s pretty clear that they’re freaked out about the loss of $$$ that a downturn in tourism means. Florida doesn’t have an income tax, which means that tourism dollars subsidize daily life in Florida.
TLDR: They need us more than we need them.
Curious which states are the friendliest for LGBTQ families? Check out our list.
LGBTQ Floridians are no longer safe in their own state, the predictable result of an equality backlash driven by the state’s extremist governor.
Thanks to heroic efforts by the folks at Equality Florida, among other dedicated activists, many of the ugliest proposed bills targeting the LGBTQ community failed to pass Florida legislature. But as of this writing, LGBTQ Floridians still have to deal with:
- No longer being able to find books that portray LGBTQ+ characters at libraries
- Ongoing uncertainty around what can legally be said about LGBTQ people under the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law
- Fear about losing their jobs if they violate the unclear law
Trans and nonbinary Floridians have to deal with additional discrimination, including:
- Not being able to change the gender on their driver’s license to match their identity
- Not being able to receive gender-affirming healthcare (for minors), or facing extra hurdles to getting gender-affirming healthcare covered by insurance (for adults)
Things have gotten to bad that 80% of trans and nonbinary Floridians want to leave the state, or have already taken steps to flee. Among the broader population, 1 in 3 LGBTQ Floridians want to leave, according to HRC.
They donโt want to be there. So why would we want to visit?
If LGBTQ Floridians are this driven to get out of dodge, Visit Florida did those of us who live in other states a favor by making the unwelcome so explicit, it’s headline news.
Planning a beach vacation? Skip Florida and check out these LGBTQ-friendly Caribbean islands instead. Or check out the best North American cities for queer women.
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