LGBTQ community protests Florida school bill

Timber and Katie Talbot are an LGBTQ couple who have raised their 9-year-old son Sebastian Talbot to be comfortable with expression and identity. But upon hearing about the "Don't Say Gay" bill making its way through the Florida Legislature, their concern was for LBTQ children who have been raised without that acceptance. 

"There's plenty of LGBT kids out there without LGBT parents to go to," Timber Talbot said. "The fact we have to fight for kids still in 2022 and how this is impacting them is sickening."

The Talbots joined Sarasota's LGBTQ community in walking a 700-foot rainbow flag across the Ringling Bridge in protest of the controversial Florida bill that would limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender in schools on Feb. 27.

Project Pride SRQ and Equality Florida partnered for the "Emergency Say Gay" rally in Sarasota in response to Florida's bill that aims to curb what teachers and school staff can teach about sexual orientation and gender. The officially titled Parental Rights in Education — dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics — will be voted on by state lawmakers this week. 

Hundreds gathered at the base of the Ringling bridge to hear from community figures and city officials including Planned Parenthood of Southwest Florida President and CEO Stephanie Fraim, Also Youth President Mary Tavarozzy and more. Many spoke to the negative effects the bill could have on LGBTQ children looking to express themselves. 

"Refusing to acknowledge these children doesn't make them go away. It deprives them of possibly the only safe place they can be who they are," City Commissioner Liz Alpert said.

Other speakers criticized House of Representatives members for voting in favor of the bill. 

"I know they have people in their lives they care about that this would hurt," City Commissioner Hagen Brody said. "Move on to legislation that will make this community a better place."

Hundreds of supporters then carried the pride flag across the Ringling Bridge, where they cheered and waved to oncoming traffic.