Florida's 1st black lesbian state rep demands sacrifice in the name of Pride

Florida state Rep. Michele Rayner spoke at a Pride event in the state, touting her accomplishment for being the "first openly queer black woman to hold any public office in the state of Florida." She noted that her "pronouns are she, they, and tired" to laughs from the crowd.

Rayner wore a shirt with her name and face emblazoned on it as she said "we are here for Pride. Yes, we are here for this flag raising."

"I do it proudly," she said, "I lean into it every day. And we are here for Pride." She called for sacrifice from those in attendance at Pride and said that Pride is all about resistance. She represents State House District 62.

"Pride was not only about rainbows and parades," she said, "and we love those things, but Pride is always about a protest. It is always about resistance, and in this moment we must resist. In this moment, we must resist."

Reyner did not specify what must be resisted. Gay marriage is legal in the United States, stigmas to homosexuality have drastically reduced, and as the first openly gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent exemplifies, being gay is not an obstacle to holding high positions of power.

"Our joy is our resistance," she said. "Our showing up as who we are is our resistance. Our joy is our protest a showing up as who we are. Is our protest, and in this moment, where we are facing forces that are coming at us, we must clearly show up as who we are.

"So, if you are of the community, show up, but also to the accomplices, and I'm not talking about allies, because I don't want to talk to y'all, I'm talking to accomplices, I'm talking to folks who want to have some skin in the game. It's also going to require y'all to show up in a way that's also going to cost you something in this moment," she said.

Reyner intoned the kind of rhetoric that is reserved for moral conversations, essentially proclaiming that to be a morally "good" person you must sacrifice of yourself to resist on behalf of LGBTQ rights. There are no rights in the United States that are not applicable to LGBTQ persons.

"We need you to make sure that you are doing the thing and that you are pushing back against this rhetoric, pushing back against this agenda that the governor and these Republicans have, I don't care if it's not partisan, we're gonna name it today."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law saying that students could not be indoctrinated into LGBTQ ideology without their parents' consent and that parents could opt their children out of those lessons. He also implemented a plan to remove the rainbow crosswalks that had sprung up across the state, opting for the traditional black and white instead of the gay rainbows.

Because the law was to create road signage that was not a distraction for drivers, the state removed all decorated pavement in roadways, including pro-police murals and other artwork.