No more ‘Sunshine.’ National LGBTQ rights group has new nickname for Florida in billboards

Bryan Lowry
·2 min read
2
Billboards are going up in Tallahassee, Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida to “welcome” visitors to Ron DeSantis’ Florida. The message: “The Sunshine State” is now the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans State.” The advertising campaign is the work of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

One of the nation’s leading LGBTQ rights groups has begun posting billboards around Florida that offer a new name for the state in the wake of a controversial new education law.

The Human Rights Campaign has posted billboards in Tampa, Tallahassee and the Orlando metro area that cross out the word “Sunshine” and label Florida as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” State. South Florida billboards are also set to go up soon, but the group has yet to specify in which locations.

Kate Oakley, the Human Rights Campaign’s state legislative director and senior counsel, said the law and this week’s letter from the Florida Department of Health advising doctors against gender-affirming treatment for transgender kids represent an attack on the legitimacy of LGBTQ identity.

“It’s about truly trying to eradicate LGBTQ issues, identities from the public square,” she said.

“This is a campaign that truly is striking fear into the hearts of LGBTQ people but particularly kids, so the intention of the billboard campaign is to really expose for people the real harm.”

The state’s law, signed last month by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, explicitly prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for kindergarten through third grade, but it also includes an ambiguous phrasing about age-appropriate instruction that could affect older students and leave school districts vulnerable to lawsuits. The law takes effect on July 1.

The Human Rights Campaign’s billboards follow a billboard campaign by New York City promoting itself as an inclusive tourism destination for Florida’s LGBTQ community.

Visit Lauderdale, which promotes tourism in the Fort Lauderdale area, has responded with its own advertising campaign promoting diversity and acceptance in South Florida in an effort to contrast the community against DeSantis’ policies in the minds of travelers.

“Visitors to Greater Fort Lauderdale can be assured they are in a place where diversity, inclusion and acceptance is actively championed as an established way of life that is fully ingrained throughout our community,” Visit Lauderdale President and CEO Stacy Ritter said in a news release announcing the organization’s “We Are” campaign.