Why LGBTQ advocates are speaking out against 'Don't Say Gay'
This weekend, Javi Gomez is traveling nearly 500 miles from his native Miami to Florida's capital in Tallahassee to plead his case against a piece of legislation LGBTQ advocates are calling the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
He's nervous. He's ready. In elementary school, classmates called him names for what they thought were feminine traits, like the pitch of his voice and his proclivity for hand gestures. His experiences are not unusual for a young LGBTQ person -- 52% of LGBTQ middle and high schoolers said they'd been bullied either in person or electronically in the past year, according to a 2021 report from the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for queer and trans youth.