Jeff Brandes was featured in an article published by the Tallahassee Democrat on May 3, 2023.
The Legislature’s heavy focus on social and cultural issues has driven hundreds of Floridians like Stanwood to the Capitol during this year’s lawmaking session hoping to change minds with personal stories and emotional pleas.
In hearings about the more than a dozen bills restricting trans health care and LGBTQ rights, residents laid bare their desperate childhoods or mental health struggles, sometimes begging lawmakers to just leave them and their community alone.
“There’s supposed to be a balance of power,” Brandes said. “Unfortunately that balance of power has shifted … not so much because of Republicans having more seats but because the leadership has essentially become co-conspirators with the governor on these issues.”
By Kathryn Varn