The past year has generated plenty of tears for Koi York, a senior at Harrison School for the Arts.
York, who identifies as transgender masculine, said he feels as if LGBTQ youth are under attack from Florida’s elected officials.
“It’s awful,” York, 18, said of the political atmosphere in Florida. “I have cried so many times. My mental health declined from seeing all that happened.”
On Friday afternoon, though, York found a reason for optimism. He joined about 20 other students from Lakeland High School and Harrison School for the Arts in a demonstration for LGBTQ rights, standing along U.S. 98 outside the entrance to the schools after the day’s final bell.
York and his fellow students held signs bearing such statements as “Say gay for the kids who can’t,” and, “School should be safe for everyone.”
Some students carried rainbow flags and pink-and-blue flags signifying transgender rights. They chanted, “Trans rights!” as they stood on the sidewalk and waved at passing vehicles. The students marched from the front of Harrison on Hollingsworth Road, meeting up with a group of adult allies for a total gathering of about 50.
The demonstration was part of a statewide after-school action, Hope for Florida, organized by Project Caerus. High school students formed the group last year in response to the Parental Rights in Education law, according to its website.
Project Caerus, named for the Greek god of hope and opportunities, says its purpose is to make LGBTQ+ students feel safer in Florida.
Targeting three bills in Legislature
The coordinated actions occurred on International Transgender Day of Visibility, dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination they face. The demonstration mirrored a gathering by LGTB advocates Friday afternoon in Tallahassee, where hundreds reportedly protested inside the state Capitol.
U.S. 98 runs from Lakeland nearly to Tallahassee, and the students standing along the road were protesting measures now being considered by the Florida Legislature. Demonstrators focused on three bills they consider threats to LGBTQ rights.
HB 254, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, would make it a felony for a doctor to prescribe puberty blockers or hormone treatments or perform gender-affirmation surgeries for minors. The Florida Department of Health recently adopted a policy advising against such care, in contrast to most medical organizations.
Yarborough’s bill would also allow courts to vacate, modify or stay custody determinations from other states “to protect the child from the risk of being subjected to the provision of sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.”
HB 1223, sponsored by Rep. Adam Anderson, R-Palm Harbor, expands upon the Parental Rights in Education law adopted last year and nicknamed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics. Anderson’s bill would prohibit schools from addressing students by pronouns that don’t match their gender assigned at birth and would ban any classroom instruction on sexuality or gender identity through eighth grade.
Such instruction in higher grades would have to be “age appropriate,” the bill says.
HB 999, introduced by Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, would ban college study programs in race, gender or sexuality, change tenure procedures and block spending on programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Gee Ryhal, a senior at Harrison and president of the school’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance, helped organize Friday’s gathering. Ryhal, 18, identifies as transgender and queer.
“We are protesting against the bills that are currently trying to be passed here, mostly the ones that will take away trans health care,” Ryhal said.
Ryhal said HB 254 could affect him and other transgender students.
Reaction from the road
The students gathered along the road drew frequent reactions from drivers of passing vehicles. At one point, the driver of a tractor trailer stopped at the traffic light at Dreadnaughts Drive gave a horn blast and flashed the rock-and-roll hand gesture.
Other drives whooped or honked their horns. A woman in a compact, blue vehicle screamed and pumped her fist as she drove past.
The gathering also prompted some negativity. A man in a pickup truck called out “f—ing queers!” Someone else yelled “perverts” from a passing vehicle.
The encouraging responses seemed to outnumber the derogatory ones by at least five to one. A student documenting the horn blasts counted past 100.
“I think it’s very empowering and very hopeful,” Ryhal said of the reaction. “All of the people honking down the road gives me a lot of hope for the future, even if things don’t look so good right now.”
York, wearing a Def Leppard T-shirt and holding a small transgender flag, held a poster that read, “My friends are dying. Stop pulling the trigger,” a reference to high suicide rates among transgender youth. York said he plans to enroll next fall at the University of Central Florida and is grateful the school offers gender-neutral facilities.
York plans to begin hormone treatments soon as part of his transition and worries that those younger than 18 won’t have that option if HB 254 passes.
The bill barring schools from using transgender students’ chosen pronouns would also have a harmful effect, York said. He said he used to avoid participating in class before teachers began addressing him as “Koi,” which is not his given name.
‘What they don’t understand’
Adyonka Branch, a senior at Lakeland High School, joined in the demonstration. Branch, 18, is a lesbian and the vice president of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance.
Branch said she wanted to show support for transgender students amid a perceived cultural crackdown. She drew satisfaction from hearing all of the honking car horns as she stood with the other students outside the school.
As for the negative responses, she said: “I guess people are afraid of what they don’t understand.”
One of the adult allies held a sign that said, “This teacher supports LGBTQ+ students,” while another clutched a white sign bearing red splatter and the message, “Transphobia kills kids, too.”
Valerie Morrow, the parent of a Lakeland High School student, said the gathering would have been larger if not for rumors of possible violence against the students that circulated through schools on Friday.
Morrow said several of her daughter’s schoolmates had planned to attend but changed their minds in response to the rumors.
David Jones is a Lake Wales resident and leader of the Rainbow Ridge LGBTQ Democratic Caucus of Polk County.
“I see a lot of potential votes,” Jones said, surveying the gathering of students. “I’ve been impressed with the public reaction. I only heard one guy yell something negative.”
Ryhal drew hope from knowing the Lakeland demonstration was linked to others happening across Florida.
“I hope that it will change people’s minds and (they’ll) realize that we’re not a threat,” he said. “We just want to live.”