“Governor Ron DeSantis has inflicted deep and lasting damage upon our state, eroding the fundamental rights of our residents and visitors while exploiting the word ‘free’ as a hollow campaign slogan,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida.

“We understand everyone must weigh the risks and decide what is best for their safety, but whether you stay away, leave or remain we ask that you join us in countering these relentless attacks,” she added. “Help reimagine and build a Florida that is truly safe for and open to all, and where freedom is a reality, not a hollow campaign slogan.”

The group warned LGBT+ people traveling to the state last month after the governor advanced a sweeping set of policies targeting LGBT+ people, particularly transgender youth, that have echoed in state legislatures across the US.

Other advisories followed from the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP, two of the oldest and largest civil rights advocacy groups in the US. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT+ political advocacy group, also has joined Equality Florida’s advisory.

“Since the day he took office, Governor DeSantis has weaponized his position to weave bigotry, hate, and discrimination into public law for his own political gain,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement this week.

[...]

Since entering the governor’s office, Mr DeSantis has restricted honest discussion of race and racism in schools and in the workplace, prohibited classroom discussion of issues related to gender and sexuality, and signed measures targeting LGBT+ people and their healthcare, abortion rights, immigrants, voting rights, and constitutionally protected speech.

On 17 May, Mr DeSantis approved a slate of bills that restrict affirming healthcare for transgender minors, threaten drag shows, forbid people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, and prevent people from using their chosen pronouns at schools.

The legislation follows administration policy restricting gender-affirming care for trans people in the state over the objections of major health organisations and LGBT+ advocates.

One law creates a new informed consent process that requires trans patients 18 and older to see a physician in person for gender-affirming healthcare, which will likely prohibit many trans adults from using telehealth or relying on other health providers such as nurse practitioners for their care.

That ambiguity has left health providers and legal analysts unclear how to navigate the law, which could prompt providers to stop providing gender-affirming care altogether, for patients of any age, according to LGBT+ advocates.

Mr DeSantis also recently expanded a measure labelled by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” law prohibiting classroom instruction on issues related to gender and sexuality, which critics argue will have a chilling effect on LGBT+ people in schools as part of an effort to erase LGBT+ people from public life.

Another recently signed law targeting immigration voids out-of-state driver’s licenses for people without proof of citizenship and bars municipalities from using state money to issue identification cards for undocumented immigrants, and most companies in the state must verify whether their patients are living in the country legally.

Immigration advocates warn that such measures will devastate the state’s construction, restaurant and agricultural industries that rely on immigrant workers.

Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid will also be required to collect their patients’ immigration statuses, which LULAC warns will place an “unjust ethical burden on providers administering necessary medical care and perpetuates discrimination based on immigration status.”