Two days ago, the NAACP and other civil rights groups issued a travel advisory warning African Americans and other people of color to stay away from Florida. Now they're joined by The Human Rights Campaign, the U.S.'s largest gay advocacy group.
While the LGBTQ+ advocacy group said it wasn't calling for a boycott or making a blanket recommendation against visiting Florida, it said it wanted to highlight new laws passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature that they said are hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, restrict abortion access and allow Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit.
"Those who visit must join us in their vocal opposition to these dangerous policies," Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. "Those who pick another place to work, to go to school or to spend their vacation should make clear why they're not heading to Florida."
Some leading conservatives briefly affected outrage at the NAACP's announcement. But they were not joined by U.S. Senator Rick Scott, formerly the state's governor, who said that "socialists" should not come to the state in a mocking travel advisory of his own.
Scott, who has often served as a political foil to President Biden, used similar language found in the NAACP's advisory, seeming to mock the dangers outlined by the civil right's group by drawing parallels to Biden.
He said the counteractive travel advisory came "in direct response to the Biden Administration attempts to erase capitalism and the system that has brought prosperity to Florida and the entire United States."
