Florida's "Climate Of Fear" forces PRIDE in St. Cloud and Tampa Pride on the River to be cancelled

Pride events in St Cloud and Tampa have been cancelled in the wake of the latest anti-LGBTQ+ legislation signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Organizers of PRIDE in St. Cloud, and The Tampa Pride Board, organisers of Pride on the River have both cancelled their upcoming pride events due to Gov DeSantis targeted the LGBTQIA+ community here in Florida.

The cancelations have came in the week that Gov DeSantis has signed several bills that banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted pronoun use in schools and forced individuals to use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex — an expansion to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill enacted into law last year.

Here in Central Florida, organizers of PRIDE in St. Cloud that was scheduled to take place on June 10, announced their decision to cancel the event on social media, commenting "As you know, Florida has recently passed a number of laws that target the LGBTQIA+ community. These laws have created a climate of fear and hostility for LGBTQIA+ people in Florida. We believe that holding an LGBTQIA+ event in this environment would put our community at risk.'

Meanwhile over in Tampa, the upcoming Pride on the River event organisers, Tampa Pride also cited Florida Governor DeSantis' political attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community as the reason the event has been cancelled.

Carrie West, president of Tampa Pride commented “In the end, we didn’t want to take any chances,” She continued “You know what, we are afraid if we did go through with this, DeSantis would come in with his Gestapo, not Tampa Police, because we’re working with them, but maybe another group, and they’d all just pull the plug on it.”

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