Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has faced the country’s most intensive rollback of Americans’ right to freely express themselves. Recent legislative and policy changes impact individuals’ ability to receive and share information online, provide an open and pluralistic education system for their children, participate in peaceful protest, and engage in artistic expression. Governor DeSantis has championed these laws even as he uses the rhetoric of freedom as a political rallying cry.1
These developments are important to Floridians — a population of over 22 million in the third-most-populous and fastest-growing state in the nation.2 The state’s recent glut of anti–LGBTQ+ laws and policies have prompted some LGBTQ+ Floridians to flee.3 One Florida parent, who identified both themself and their children as LGBTQ+, told media outlets that “we just low grade don’t feel safe” under such laws.4 In response to reporting on this exodus, a DeSantis spokesman tweeted an emoji response: a hand waving goodbye.5