Hundreds rally, march in downtown Orlando for trans rights
Cries for fair treatment filled the air Saturday afternoon as hundreds marched in downtown Orlando in support of rights for transgender people in Florida.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights helped organize the event, which follows a lawsuit challenging a state law that prohibits transgender people from using public bathrooms that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.
Samira Burnside, a 17-year-old trans girl who helped organize the event, said the law, along with a slew of other bills Gov. Ron DeSantis signed this year, dehumanizes trans people.
“The debate is whether or not trans people are people and we are here to show them they are,” Burnside said. “Trans youth, like me, deserve to lead their own lives and to have self-determination, and determination with their families, without state intervention.”
In addition to the restroom ban, the governor signed laws this year that limit use of preferred pronouns in public schools and ban gender-affirming care for minors.
At the event Lindsey Spero, a nonbinary transgender person who’s on the board of the FitzLane Project in Tampa, yelled “Bathrooms are for everyone!” The crowd, filled with people waving pink-and-blue transgender flags, responded with loud cheers.
Other speakers at the rally included Tatiana Quiroga, executive director of Orlando’s Come Out With Pride event; Andrea Montanez, Hope Community Center’s LGBTQ immigration coordinator; and Stonewall Riot veteran Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.
When she addressed demonstrators she gently reminded them to love one another.
“We have gone through this for time and time again and we’re not going to give up now,” Griffin-Gracy said. “Please, whatever you do, don’t give up the fight … fight, fight, fight!”
Florida GOP leaders say that recently enacted state laws serve to protect children and women, and some even incorrectly claim a link between homosexuality and child abuse.
In April, state Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, referred to trans people as “mutants” before voting to push for bathroom restrictions.
Meanwhile, across the nation anti-LGBTQ demonstrations have been increasing, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks political violence.
In 2022, the nonprofit organization reported 142 demonstrations, up from 56 in 2021. Six protests were reported in 2020.
“Here in the United States I’ve found issues get confused. That somehow the rights of individuals are impacting the rights of others,” Cheryl LaBash, 74, said at the rally. “Some people are stuck with, ‘well that’s the way it’s always been,’ but the way it’s always been is wrong.”
The event started on the steps of City Hall and transitioned to a march near the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts.
It ended with another demonstration at City Hall where organizers with the Center for Constitutional Rights brought up the lawsuit filed in the federal Middle District of Florida on Sept. 29.
One of the six plaintiffs includes Lindsey Spero, a nonbinary activist from St. Petersburg who injected testosterone at a state medical board meeting this year.
Among 11 defendants named in the lawsuit are Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain, Orlando police Chief Eric Smith and Orlando Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Edmonds.
The lawsuit, which argues restroom restrictions are unconstitutional, said state statute defines men and women in a way that presumes a person cannot outgrow those categories or exist outside of them.
Democratic lawmakers and LGBTQ activists worry the law negatively targets gender-nonconforming people by putting them in jeopardy of facing misdemeanor trespassing charges. Those who are suspected of breaking the law could face jail time or a fine of up to $500.
“It’s a tricky situation here in Florida because I know that gender-neutral bathrooms are few and far between,” said Andie Albanito, a co-director at Umbrella Brigade, a local nonprofit that works as a community defense group.
“As an agender person, I don’t necessarily feel aligned with male or female,” they said. “So most of the time I choose what is safest for me rather than what is going to make me feel most comfortable.”
