WILTON MANORS, Fla. – Members of the LGBTQ+ community are noticing a big change to Florida’s tourism website.
Looking at the official Visit Florida website you’ll find a host of suggestions to do across the state, but a section once meant for LGBTQ+ travelers is now gone, and state officials have not explained why.
Keith Blackburn is the President and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s not really a surprise because Tallahassee has enacted so much anti-LGBT legislation over the past few years that this is another thing they have done to try to erase, insult our community,” said Blackburn. “The impact is economic, it’s social. There are a lot of impact. We’ve lost a lot of business. We’ve lost a lot of leisure travel, we’ve lost conferences meetings and events.”
William Smith is just as upset over the move.
He helps run Cake Daddy’s, a new and upcoming bakery on Wilton Drive that prides itself on its cakes, cookies and cupcakes, but he now fears that tourists wanting to patronize this business and other gay friendly establishments will have one less method to find them.
“If you’re making cuts then everyone should be involved in that, not just a marginalized group of people,” said Smith. “That’s like a roadmap for the LGBTQ community. We don’t have a lot of resources as it is, and its really up to us to be able to provide that. And also, it’s discrimination flat out.”