Queerguru has wintered in Miami Beach for the past 20+ years because as an Brit expat we were always attracted by the climate, the stunning art-deco architecture and the vibrant queer community. (And we should mention the men …..II) Coming from London it was important to us to be able to live in a multi-cultural diverse community that not only shared big city references but also one that made us feel very welcome from the gecko.
My husband and I have now just moved to a different condo in one of the nicest residential areas located next to the Bass Museum and only two blocks from the ocean. It felt like heaven, so it was even more shocking to discover last week that a 37 year old women was brutally beaten to death one night whilst she slept in the doorway of the Miami City Ballet ……… less than 300 yards from our home
Andrea Doria Dos Passos was a transgender women, and although her vicious death has not been declared a hate crime, she is at least the second known trans person to be killed violently in Florida in the past month. When the alleged murderer was in Court, the Judge found there was probable cause to increase the initial charges against him.
“I’ve had a chance to review the arrest affidavit, to me it looks like it should be a first-degree murder not a second-degree, based on the facts alleged in this arrest affidavit where he allegedly struck the victim with a metal pipe about the head and face, and then it looks like he defiled the body by doing other things to the victim after she was deceased,” .
It is the latest troubling incident to remind us of the potential consequences of the present political climate where so much extreme right wing rhetoric goes unchecked.
Miami-Dade (and nearby Broward County) have become the last remaining Democratic bastions in Florida which sadly is now a red state. (Incidentally the last Democratic Governor here was Lawton Chiles who died in Office in December 1998……the same month I bought my first condo here….. but I am not to blame for that). The present Governor ….. Ron DeSantis ……is not just a Republican but one of the most virulent homophobes and transphobes that have held power.
This is not the first time Florida’s LGBTQ+ community has been under attack. Back in 1977 Anita Bryant took aim at us This former Miss Oklahoma whose claim to fame was being the face of Florida Oranges (!) launched her “Save The Children” (sic) campaign. Though the campaign ended successfully with a 69% majority vote to repeal the ordinance on June 7, 1977 (Dade County restored the ordinance in 1998), it permanently damaged her public image, and her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was terminated three years later.
To make her defeat even sweeter, years later she discovered that one of her granddaughters is gay and married to her wife.
Then in June 2016 there was the massacre in the Pulse gay club in Orlando when 49 gay men and women were killed and another 53 wounded the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history
When De Santis became Governor he tried to replace Bryant ‘s bill with his ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’. He then went on to sign a whole slate of extreme Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills, enacting a record-shattering number of discriminatory measures Into Law. Brandon Wolf who is a survivior of Pulse and an Equality Florida Spokesman and one of De Santis advesaries, helps lead the fight against his policy agenda with lawsuits and protests. He’s afraid that the state of hate laws will only spark more violence against our community
However fast forward to De Santis and his misjudged campaign for the Presidential Nomination when he had to slink back to Florida with his tail between his legs. He returned to find his anti-LGBTQ regime crumbling and a court settlement had curtailed the “Don’t Say Gay” law ,while multiple anti-gay bills were going nowhere and were stalled in the legislature.
What ever happens to these bills, and several around the country, are not as important as the outrageous rhetoric that accompanies them. It is that, and the hysterical zealots, who know that whatever they say in this political climate will go unchecked and repeated in the media . People such as Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Brobert who have played a major roles in elevating anti-LGBTQ+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies.” And even Speaker Mike Johnson who described homosexuals as “sinful” and “destructive” and argued support for homosexuality could lead to support for pedophilia. He also authored op-eds that argued for criminalizing gay sex.
There may not be many people on this list but it only takes a few to propagate lies that are repeated and published without any checks. Its when you realize that the potential republican presidential candidate is unable to utter one single word of truth and yet his followers (!) still treat him like Moses reading off the Tablets, you know we all have cause to worry about our community.
We are entitled to have a world that is safe for every single person that fits into the LGBTQA+ community . We deserve respect and the right to live our lives as we choose, and stop being the fodder for cheap shots from extremists and publicity seeking idiots.
I worry about what lies ahead and even if its proved that Andrea Dorias Dos Passos was not the victim of a hate crime, the fact that the world turned out to be such an unwelcoming place for her still leaves me in despair.
Last week I was conducting a zoom interview for Queerguru with a gay couple who are happily traversing the world as ‘digital nomads’ . They were in Istanbul, Turkey which is considered to be less repressive on gay rights when compared to most other Muslim-majority countries. Brent and Michael’s travels had made them realize that the world out there is not such a scary place. Yet, I now think Florida will be soon unless we do something about it.
R.I.P. Andrea Doria Dos Passos
ROGER WALKER-DACK Creator, Editor-in-Chief Miami Beach, FL / Provincetown, MA
IG @QUEERGURU Member
of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and
NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributung Editor
The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of Roger Dack Ltd in the UK
Labels: 2024, Florida, Opinion piece
