Florida's Key West is among the most gay-friendly locations within the nation. The Florida Panhandle — many locals name it the Redneck Riviera — is a special story.
The bloodbath of 49 individuals in a homosexual nightclub occurred between these extremes, forcing many Floridians to rethink their assumptions concerning the state's evolving tradition.
Key West has a homosexual police chief, a lesbian county mayor and was the nation's first metropolis to elect an brazenly homosexual mayor. It attracts 450,000 homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender vacationers a yr. Bumper stickers studying "One Human Household" seem on all metropolis automobiles, together with police automobiles, ambulances and hearth vans.
"It is a protected place; they know that they're free from judgment, free from problem, free from bodily violence," stated Man Ross, who heads LGBT gross sales on the Monroe County Vacationer Improvement Council. "We don't tolerate homosexual bashing down right here. It simply does not occur."
Drive 780 miles north and west to the gleaming, white-sand seashores of the Panhandle, and you will find "household pleasant" cities that are not recognized for welcoming gays.
After homosexual marriage turned authorized in Florida in 2014, the Santa Rosa County clerk stopped performing any wedding ceremony ceremonies — homosexual or straight — to keep away from marrying same-sex couples. In Pensacola, a small LBGT group middle referred to as Equality Home closed for lack of funds after lower than three years.
The assault in central Florida on June 12 — Latin Night time on the Pulse membership in Orlando — has drawn an outpouring of solidarity, but in addition worry, notably amongst individuals who noticed the vacationer mecca as a refuge from hatred.
The capturing additionally created awkward moments for a few of Florida's Republican and conservative Christian leaders, who tried to point out compassion whilst they defended positions gays and lesbians discover hurtful.
"There are two Floridas," and between them there is a "patchwork," stated Nadine Smith, CEO of the homosexual and transgender rights group Equality Florida.
Solely 56 % of the individuals within the nation's third-most populous state reside in communities which have enacted non-discrimination protections. The state supplies "no protections in any respect," she stated.
Yr after yr, Florida's Republican-led Legislature has rejected laws prohibiting discrimination for causes of sexual orientation or gender id.
"Once I drive from the place I reside within the Tampa Bay space to my hometown within the Panhandle, I've to weave my approach by way of locations which have full protections for me and my household and locations the place they're completely detached to the discrimination my group faces," Smith stated.
Republican Lawyer Common Pam Bondi got here to Orlando and was placed on the spot by CNN's Anderson Cooper after she vowed to prosecute anybody who assaults the LGBT group.
Cooper requested her to answer the various gays and lesbians who name her a hypocrite as a result of she spent tons of of hundreds of tax dollars making an attempt to uphold the state's homosexual marriage ban.
In her protection, Bondi stated she had an obligation to characterize the desire of the voters, and added that her personal views are mirrored by a photograph of clasped, rainbow-colored palms that she posted — after the capturing — on her private Fb web page.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who campaigned towards adoptions by gays and lesbians in 2010, did not reply instantly when requested if the assault made him rethink this place. Scott as an alternative spoke of the necessity for love, even with "the gays."
"These are people. Let's love each considered one of them," he stated.
Down in Key West, Ross dismissed the governor's statements as "crocodile tears."
"Scott has no credibility within the LGBT group," he stated.
The Florida Household Coverage Council, which has campaigned towards homosexual rights, issued a press release asking for prayers for the sufferer's households after the assault.
That did not imply a lot for Smith.
"It is arduous to simply accept them praying for us in tragedy once they prey on us relating to equality," she stated. "It is rather clear who wants defending in Florida."
And simply because they're praying, it doesn't suggest their positions on opposing LGBT rights will change. They will not, stated the council's president, John Stemberger.
Stemberger stated it is "shameless" for the LGBT group to make use of the assault to "attempt to leverage a political agenda," and he does not assume altering Florida's legal guidelines would have helped anyway.
"It would not have made a little bit of distinction. Pulse would nonetheless have occurred," he stated.
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