"Travel Advisory" Warning Issued For LGBTQIA+ Community & People of Color Visiting Florida

A new travel advisory warning could impact visitors to Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, LEGOLAND Florida, and other Florida vacation destinations.

Equality Florida, an LGBTQIA+ rights organization, announced a “travel advisory” Wednesday. They warned about “risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom” of people moving to or visiting Florida, according to The Orlando Sentinel. It came alongside an even more dire warning from the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

“Every county in Florida poses a heightened risk of harassment, possible detainment, and potential family separation based on racial profiling,” the organization wrote. “Travel to all areas of Florida should be done with extreme caution as it can be unsafe for people of color, individuals who speak with an accent, and international travelers.”

The decisions come after various legislation in Florida threatens the rights of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color. Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced and passed the Parental Rights in Education Act last year, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. It essentially forbids discussion of sexuality in classrooms and encourages teachers to out at-risk LGBTQIA+ students to their parents.

In the wake of “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis introduced efforts to remove non-white history from public classrooms. He blocked a proposed Advanced Placement (AP) African American history course and banned any material that would make white students feel “discomfort” about their ancestry and history.

As part of the “Stop WOKE.” Act, Governor DeSantis required teachers to remove books not appearing on his state-approved reading list. The governor claimed that only “pornographic and inappropriate” books were removed, but many activists and teachers say it’s a wide-reaching book ban.

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DeSantis has not responded to these two travel advisories but previously called a similar warning from the NAACP a “joke.”

“As the governor noted previously, this type of thing is a political stunt,” DeSantis’s press secretary Bryan Griffin wrote in an e-mail to the Sentinel. “We aren’t going to waste time worrying about political stunts but will continue doing what is right for Floridians.”

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