SARASOTA – Suncoast organizations came together Sunday morning to rally protections for the LGBTQ+ community.
“It scares me, I worry for these kids…their lives are literally on the line,” said Sarasota Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Heather Eslien.
Suncoast LGBTQ + organizations and their allies united Sunday morning to speak out against several bills moving swiftly through the Florida House and Senate that target the community and their youth.
“The youth don’t have the ability to vote these individuals out of the legislature, so it’s important for us to communicate that to our allies and potential allies, so they see families like ours are not being represented as equal in the state and hopefully Tallahassee realizes that they need to represent all of their constituents and not just their base,” said Project Pride SRQ President, Jordan Letschert.
HB 1557, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill would limit teachers from talking about LGBTQ issues or people, undermining the existing protections for LGBTQ kids in school.
“Now teachers are not supposed to even mention gay people, the history of the LGBTQ, the rich colorful history of our community, kids are already ostracized, that is going to completely silence them, they’ll be dropping out at high rates, they’ll be suicide at high rates, I’m not being hyperbolic when I sat this is life or death for these kids, life or death,” said Eslien.
A National survey on LGBTQ Youth’s mental health through the Trevor’s Project data found that 52 percent of transgender and non-binary youth have considered suicide and 42 percent of LGBTQ students have seriously contemplated suicide.
“8 plus hours a day they’re at school, that needs to be their safe space, sometimes home isn’t their safe space so school is, that’s one of the areas where we need to protect for students to be who they truly are, for them to come out to their teachers, and teachers not be punished for accepting them for who they truly are,” said Letschert.
“If you care about kids, if you care about your own kids, whether they’re LGBTQ or not, if you care about the youth of this country you will make sure to stop this bill,” said Eslien.
Several states, including Arizona, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and South Dakota, have already introduced anti-LGBTQ legislation in 2022.