On March 28, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 1557 – widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law – which seeks to censor discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida’s public schools. The law seeks to create a climate of fear, uncertainty, and financial risk for any Florida school that wishes to be an inclusive place of learning. Under this law, even mentioning the existence of LGBTQ people in the classroom can prompt a costly private lawsuit...
Our Voices
In 2017, the City of Boca Raton, Florida, and the County of Palm Beach, Florida, each enacted local ordinances prohibiting state-licensed therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a patient under 18 years old. Every leading medical and mental health organization in the country has warned that these practices do not work and put young people at risk of serious harm, including depression, substance abuse, and suicide. In 2018, an anti-LGBTQ legal group filed a...
On September 30, 2021, Equality Florida, Impact Fund, and NCLR filed an amicus brief on behalf of a coalition of civil rights groups and nonprofit organizations urging a Florida appellate court to affirm a ruling upholding the validity of Orange County’s Human Rights Ordinance (HRO). The case is O C Food & Beverage, LLC v. Orange County. Anita Yanes and Brittney Smith brought a sex discrimination lawsuit alleging they were denied entrance to Rachel’s Orlando, a club and restaurant in...
Drew Adams is a transgender student at Neese High School. He sued his school for excluding him from the boys’ restrooms at school. On July 26, 2018, Judge Corrigan ruled that the school’s restroom policy violated the U.S. Constitution and Title IX and ordered the school to permit Drew to use the boys’ restrooms. The school board appealed. On February 28, 2019, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, along with Cooley LLP and the Transgender Law Center, filed an amicus brief...
John Doe is a transgender student who transitioned in second grade. For over eight years, the school district prohibited John from using the boys’ restroom and locker room. By the time John reached high school, he would avoid going to the restroom all day, interfering with this ability to focus in class. He was also unmotivated to participate in physical education because changing in the nurse’s office always made him late to class. John’s mental health and grades suffered;...
In April 2017, Tampa’s City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting licensed therapists from engaging in the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, which attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, with patients under 18 years old. Every leading medical and mental health organization in the country has warned that these practices do not work and put young people at risk of serious harm, including depression, substance abuse, and suicide....
NCLR filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in this case involving the Florida Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) blanket policies of denying transition-related care to civil detainees. Erika Hood, a transgender woman civilly committed by DCF, was denied counseling and hormones to treat her gender dysphoria and was also prohibited from expressing her gender identity. NCLR’s brief to the 11th Circuit...
Florida law requires the Office of Vital Statistics to list a birth mother’s husband on the child’s birth certificate. After Florida gained marriage equality on January 6, 2015, the state was obligated to start providing same-sex spouses with all the same rights given to different-sex spouses, including the right to an accurate birth certificate listing both spouses as parents. Despite repeated requests, the Florida Office of Vital Statistics refused to recognize same-sex spouses...
On January 21, 2014, six same-sex couples and Equality Florida Institute filed a lawsuit in Florida state court in Miami seeking the freedom to marry. The lawsuit argued that Florida’s laws barring same-sex couples from marriage violated the United States Constitution by denying them the legal protections and equal dignity that having the freedom to marry provides. The couples were from Miami and the surrounding area. Four of the couples were raising children, and another couple had an...
On May 14, 2014, Gildas Dousset, a student at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, filed an appeal in state court seeking recognition of his marriage to his husband. The appeal argued that Florida’s laws barring recognition of the valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples violate the United States Constitution. Dousset and his spouse legally married in Massachusetts in 2013 and lived together in Fort Lauderdale. When Dousset sought in-state tuition at Florida Atlantic...