Right after I published this story yesterday, I noticed that Disney had pulled a 1 billion dollar admin expansion project out of Florida. They said in a statement that they cannot in good conscience require their employees to work in Florida, so it doesn't make any sense to build office towers there.

Of course, this is being presented by the press in light of Disney's ongoing fight with DeSantis, but according to at least one HRC staffer I spoke to the other day, Disney's decision is going to be one that corporations all over the US are going to have to very carefully consider emulating. Fortune 500 companies tend to employ people who value fair treatment and equality for queer folks. Many Fortune 500 employees are queer folks themselves.

I think that kind of economic pressure can have a big impact.

Yes, the federal government is going to play a role, but it's going to be a struggle. US Departments of Justice, Labor, Health And Human Services etc, will certainly fight to support queer folks in Florida — at least when the president is a Democrat. Some federal agencies will file lawsuits to enforce rules against discrimination.

But each fight will be "knock down drag out," because Florida obviously isn't going to just accept whatever the federal government does. They'll challenge federal action in federal court, and the legal fights will be protracted with uncertain outcomes.

During that whole struggle, political rhetoric will be sharp, bitter, and stigmatizing.

Hating queer people will be socially acceptable in Florida for a very long time, made worse by the struggle, not better.

The next few years are going to be very hard for a lot of people.