Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.

[8] Furthermore, the bills allow for transgender individuals using a restroom consistent with their gender identity in a public building to be charged with criminal trespass,[9] expand the Parental Rights in Education Act,[10] enable medical practitioners to deny service based on personal belief,[11] and restrict "adult live performances" anywhere a child might be present (notably targeting drag performances, as claimed by DeSantis).

Critics accused the Sheriff's Office of deliberately targeting gay men, asking if undercover deputies would have also arrested a man and a woman for meeting in public and agreeing to have sex.

[22] Judge Robert Lewis Hinkle wrote: This order holds that marriage is a fundamental right as that term is used in cases arising under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, that Florida's same-sex marriage provisions thus must be reviewed under strict scrutiny, and that, when so reviewed, the provisions are unconstitutional.Nine counties, thirty cities, and one town in Florida offer domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples.

In December 2022, undercover agents of DeSantis' administration attended a drag performance in Orlando to determine whether the event was violating state obscenity laws, especially if minors were present.

Relying on Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins and other Title VII precedent, the court concluded that the plaintiff was discriminated against based on her sex because she was transitioning from male to female.

[84][85][86] LGBT advocacy groups in Florida hailed the decision, urging the state to pass legislation extending discrimination protections to housing, credit, health care and public accommodations.

Today's decision should also serve as a reminder that leaders in every state have the power to take action to improve the lives of LGBTQ people and deliver on the promise of equality for all.

[90][91][92] In May 2023, a bill passed both houses of the Florida Legislature to legally allow discrimination within doctors surgery, medicine and hospitals by medical practitioner's - on the grounds of consciousness, religion or belief.

[95] In January 2024, the Florida Department of Highway Services and Motor Vehicles unilaterally implemented regulations banning the issuing of any drivers license with a gender marker different from the holder's assigned sex at birth.

[101] The Department of Highway Services and Motor Vehicles once required evidence of sex reassignment surgery in order to change the gender marker on a Florida ID and driver's license.

)[104] On October 18, 2023, the Florida Board of Education voted to apply a similar restriction on bathroom use at private college and university buildings, including at any student housing run by those schools.

[102] In August 2020, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a high school in Ponte Vedra Beach violated the law by refusing to allow transgender student Andrew Adams to use the restroom consistent with his gender identity.

[106] In January 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with the Ponte Vedra Beach school district and formally upheld the ban on transgender individuals within bathrooms in Florida.

[117] On October 31, 2022, the Florida Medical Board implemented the new rule that requiring a 24 hour waiting period for adults before they can undergo sexual reassignment surgery and to ban minors from any gender-affirming healthcare.

[119] On the same day, the state Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved a similar rule, but theirs contained an exemption to allow gender-affirming care for children enrolled in research studies.

Furthermore, a memo stated that social transition "should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents", contradicting the global medical consensus as reflected in the WPATH Standards of Care.

[125] Most major medical organizations, including the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and international bodies such as The Endocrine Society, opposed Florida's proposal.

[138] In June 2024, a federal judge permanently blocked the law from taking effect, striking down provisions that banned gender affirming care for minors and adults.

Many medical groups, doctors, and mental health specialists have said that treatment for transgender youth is safe and effective, although there is a lack of long-term research on gender-affirming care.

[141][127][142] The LGBT media advocacy organization GLAAD argued that the memo was "playing politics with [transgender children's] lives", stating that "All major medical associations support gender-affirming care for trans youth.

"[126] In August 2022, the state medical board voted to require any trans adult seeking gender affirming healthcare care to receive their approval at least 24 hours in advance.

[152] Effective from August 21, 2022, state Medicaid regulations ban coverage of sexual reassignment surgery, hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers and "any other transgender healthcare initiatives" for all individuals, regardless of age.

[165][166][167][168][169][170] The law additionally prevents school districts from withholding information about a child's "mental, emotional, or physical well-being" from their parents unless educators believe there is a risk of "abuse, abandonment, or neglect."

[186] The Human Rights Campaign and the Center for Countering Digital Hate recorded a 406% increase in the use of tweets associating the LGBTQ community with being "groomers", "pedophiles", and "predators" following the passage of the law.

[189] DeSantis later gave his reason for the ban as the inclusion of queer theory and intersectionality in the course, as well as content regarding the role prisons play in systemic oppression, stating that these topics were on "the wrong side of the line for Florida standards".

The decision was praised by the Florida DoE, who called for College Board to remove "content on Critical Race Theory, Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality and other topics that violate our laws".

[192] In March 2022, Florida passed a law to create a list of sanctioned reading material for students in educational settings, punishing any teacher or school librarian whose classrooms or libraries contain unsanctioned books with felony charges.

[195] The gay panic defense is a legal strategy in which defendants accused of violent offenses claim that unwanted same-sex sexual advances provoked them into reacting by way of self-defense.

[222] In November 2020, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2–1 to declare ordinances banning conversion therapy on minors in Boca Raton and surrounding Palm Beach County a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.