On the finish of a breezy hike to the foot of Businessman’s Lunch Falls, sitting on a sun-warmed rock in the midst of the creek, they popped the query. I mentioned sure.
However as we started fascinated with our future marriage ceremony, we had a conundrum: Our household lives in Florida, and we might like to get married there … however most of our queer mates have lately moved out of the state for their very own security and well-being.
Having a marriage in Florida is essential to us — however it’s turn out to be a troublesome place to exist as a queer particular person
Logan Gabrielle Schulman
Regardless of transferring to New York Metropolis in 2022, we each grew up in Florida and could not think about having our marriage ceremony wherever else.
The state’s sunshine, flora, and fauna make us really feel totally at house, and we’ve got many members of the family in Florida who can not journey.
However earlier than we moved, Gov. Ron DeSantis handed what’s been nicknamed the “Do not Say Homosexual” invoice, which limits instructing on sexual orientation and gender id in Florida faculties.
My companion and I — who each use they/them pronouns — have been instructing on the New Faculty of Florida on the time and have been anxious how this may impression our jobs and our lives.
We moved north with a grim understanding of the place issues have been headed politically in Sarasota, and lots of of our Floridian LGBTQ+ colleagues would comply with swimsuit within the months to comply with.
Shortly after we left Florida, DeSantis overhauled New Faculty, turning the liberal-arts faculty right into a bastion of conservative politics.
As we began to plan our marriage ceremony, we checked in with queer and trans mates, most of whom have sought refuge from Florida’s fraught sociopolitical local weather.
They helped us understand how a lot concern and anger there’s in our neighborhood surrounding touring southward. Most informed us they outright refused to set foot in Florida — not even for a marriage.
After all, there’s nothing fallacious with a vacation spot marriage ceremony, as long as that vacation spot is not the identical place your mates all simply labored so laborious to flee from to make sure their rights to life, love, and healthcare.
Our resolution is to have 2 weddings: one in Florida and one in New York
Logan Gabrielle Schulman
As queer individuals — queer residents — we’ve got the burden to navigate our competing needs: to have fun amid household in an ecosystem we cherish and to maintain our queer neighborhood and ourselves feeling joyous, and extra importantly, secure.
We might by no means ask a cherished one to journey the place they do not really feel welcome. However we additionally refuse to let conservative politics cease us from celebrating our love amid among the most stunning nature on the planet in Florida.
With all of this to contemplate, we started to plan two weddings: one in Florida with native household and mates and one in New York Metropolis for our northern communities — particularly those that cannot think about going again to a state that not feels secure for folk who as soon as referred to as it house.
We’ll have one marriage ceremony in Orlando this fall and the opposite in New York subsequent spring.
We would like our neighborhood to really feel like they will truly have fun at our marriage ceremony — however this solely occurs when everybody gathered feels secure, not focused by native politics due to who they’re.
I hope our two weddings make everybody really feel comfy, cherished, and seen. Is not that what making a wedding is all about?
