On Tuesday, masses of drag queens and allies from in all places Florida amassed in Tallahassee to protest towards the continuing assaults on the rights of the LGBTQ group through Republican lawmakers within the state. More than 300 protesters from no less than 20 towns, together with Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville, had been anticipated to take part, in accordance to Equality Florida. The Orlando Sentinel reported a crowd of over 400 other people.
Participants amassed at Cascades Park in downtown Tallahassee at 1 pm after which marched to a rally on the stairs of the Florida State Capitol. “Hundreds of drag queens and supporters of the #LGBTQ+ community came to Tallahassee today in defense of diversity and in opposition to attacks on #LGBTQ+ Floridians,” state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
At the rally, Eskamani spoke along Orlando-based drag queen activist Darcel Stevens. The colourful protest towards the hot wave of anti-LGBTQ expenses handed within the state legislature used to be led through Stevens, a self-described “outspoken butch queen” and “moderate Democrat.” Stevens prompt fellow drag performers and LGBTQ entertainers to make their voices heard, telling the state executive that “the shows must go on.”
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The protest is available in reaction to the state’s contemporary wave of anti-LGBTQ expenses handed through the Republican-led House of Representatives. Last week, 3 items of legislation attacking the rights of Florida’s LGBTQ group had been handed, particularly transgender and gender nonbinary early life. The expenses come with a ban on trans other people the use of toilets that align with their gender id, the criminalisation of gender-affirming handle minors, and the so-called “anti-drag show bill.” The identical day, the Florida Board of Education licensed a rule banning the dialogue of LGBTQ problems in school rooms for college students via twelfth grade, extending the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Law” to all grades.
Darcel Stevens informed the Daily News in an electronic mail sooner than the development that “the current slate of anti-LGBTQIA+ laws being passed this session is cruel, unjust, full of hypocrisy, and runs counter to the very values Republicans claim to uphold. Under the false pretence of wanting to protect children, lawmakers are content to retaliate by destroying parental freedom and businesses’ financial livelihoods – all while ignoring the real issues affecting Floridians like affordable housing, healthcare, and the soaring cost of living.” Protesters throughout the Capitol rotunda chanted “Drag is not a crime!”
Attendant Nicki Mirage, a Florida-based drag queen, cosplayer and YouTuber, tweeted: “Drag isn’t going anywhere in the state of Florida!!!”