Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Florida have federal protections, but many face some legal challenges on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26, 2003, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6, 2015. Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. In addition, several cities and counties, comprising about 55 percent of Florida's population, have enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. These include Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach, among others. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities in the state, mainly in the Miami metropolitan area, but has been struck down by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In September 2023, Lake Worth Beach, Florida became an official "LGBTQ sanctuary city" to protect and defend LGBTQ rights.
Since 2021, under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, the state has seen a significant erosion in LGBTQ rights, and especially transgender rights. In June 2021, a bill was passed preventing transgender women and girls from participating in female sports in schools. In April 2023, Florida LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida issued a travel advisory for LGBTQ people to avoid visiting or moving to the state. The following May, the Human Rights Campaign signed on to the travel advisory, citing legislation recently signed by Governor DeSantis, while stopping short of calling for a boycott of the state.
In May 2023, several bills were signed by DeSantis, which prohibited access to hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors and created barriers to accessing hormone replacement therapy for adults, including banning insurance coverage for such treatments and requiring a physician to administer the treatment rather than a nurse practitioner. Furthermore, the bills allow for transgender individuals using a restroom consistent with their gender identity in a public building to be charged with criminal trespass, expand the Parental Rights in Education Act, enable medical practitioners to deny service based on personal belief, and restrict "adult live performances" anywhere a child might be present (notably targeting drag performances, as claimed by DeSantis). In April 2026, the state passed a bill that will prohibit state and local governments from promoting or funding efforts classified as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—including LGBTQ organizations and events.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity After Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821, the Territorial Legislature enacted laws against fornication, adultery, bigamy, and incest, as well as against "open lewdness, or... any notorious act of public indecency, tending to debauch the morals of society."Duval, John P. Compilation of the public acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, passed prior to 1840. Tallahassee: Samuel S. Sibley, Printer, 1839. Sections 40–42 of "An Act relating to Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1839, p. 120 Florida's first specific sodomy law, which was enacted in 1868 and made sodomy a felony, read: "Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding twenty years." In 1917, the Florida Legislature added a lesser crime, a second-degree misdemeanor: "Whoever commits any unnatural and lascivious act with another person shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months."
Florida courts interpreted the 1868 law to prohibit all sexual activity between two men or two women. It also prohibited oral sex and anal sex between heterosexual partners. In 1971, the Florida Supreme Court, ruling in Franklin v. State, struck down the "crime against nature" statute as unconstitutionally vague. The court retained the state's prohibition on sodomy by ruling that anal and oral sex could still be prosecuted under the lesser charge of "lewd and lascivious" conduct.Turbe, Laura A. "Florida's Inconsistent Use of the Best Interests of the Child Standard," 33 Stetson L. Rev. 369 (2003–2004), accessed July 16, 2011, pp. 377–381. See footnote 34, p. 374. Florida further enacted a "psychopathic offender law" in 1955, under which those convicted of sodomy (labelled as "criminal sexual psychopathic persons") would be periodically examined to determine if they had "improved to a degree that [they] will not be a menace to others". The law was repealed in 1979.
In 1960, the state Attorney General issued an opinion that Florida's sodomy statute did not apply to Indian reservations. The opinion stated that crimes committed between Native Americans or between Native Americans and non-Native Americans were a matter for tribal courts. This meant that if the particular reservation had no law against it, sodomy would be legal on the reservation. However, sodomy between non-Native Americans on the reservation would fall under the jurisdiction of state law and would be liable to prosecution.
Same-sex sexual activity remained illegal in Florida until 2003, when the United States Supreme Court struck down all state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas.New York Times: "Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Law Banning Sodomy," June 26, 2003 , accessed May 24, 2011 As of 2020, the state's sodomy law, though unenforceable, has not been repealed by the Florida Legislature.Florida Statutes 2014, Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature, accessed January 3, 2015 The statute reads: "800.02 Unnatural and lascivious act. — A person who commits any unnatural and lascivious act with another person commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. A mother's breastfeeding of her baby does not under any circumstance violate this section."
In October 2018, during a gay sex undercover sting operation by Florida law enforcement, a judge ruled that gay sex is not illegal in a public space so long as it is within a room.
In September 2020, Hillsborough County officials arrested 11 men on misdemeanor charges. Each of the 11 men had gone to a local park and struck up a conversation with another man with both eventually agreeing to having consensual sex. They were arrested on misdemeanor charges that do not involve sex crimes. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office published the names and mugshots of all 11 men to local news outlets. Critics accused the Sheriff's Office of deliberately targeting gay men, asking if undercover deputies would have also arrested a man and a woman for meeting in public and agreeing to have sex.
In 2026, the Florida Legislature passed CS/CS/HB 1525, which repealed § 800.02, Florida Statutes, the state's statutory prohibition on "unnatural and lascivious acts"; the House of Representatives passed the bill 108–0 on March 3, 2026, and the Senate passed it 38–0 on March 10, 2026. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill on June 16, 2026, and the repeal takes effect on October 1, 2026.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
In 1977, Florida enacted a law banning same-sex marriage.
Furthermore, in November 2008, 61.9 percent of residents voted for Florida Amendment 2, and since then the Florida Constitution has banned same-sex marriage and civil unions. The amendment added Article I Section 27 to the Florida Constitution, which says:
A U.S. district court ruled on August 21, 2014, in Brenner v. Scott, that Florida's same-sex marriage ban was in violation of the Constitution of the United States. As a result of that ruling, same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since the court's temporary injunction took effect on January 6, 2015. Judge Robert Lewis Hinkle wrote:
Nine counties, thirty cities, and one town in Florida offer domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples.
In March 2016, a bill passed the Florida House of Representatives by a vote of 112–5 and the Senate by a vote of 38–0 to repeal a 1868 ban on cohabitation between unmarried couples. Governor Rick Scott signed the bill into law on April 6, 2016, and it went into effect on July 1, 2016.
Adoption and parenting In 1977, partly due to the anti-gay Save Our Children campaign led by Anita Bryant in Miami, the Florida Legislature passed a law specifically prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children; the statute survived several court challenges, and was upheld by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 in Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services."In a Six-to-Six Vote, Federal Appeals Court Declines to Reconsider Decision Upholding Florida's Anti-Gay Adoption Law" , American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, press release, July 22, 2004
In 2010, in the case of In re: Gill, involving a same-sex couple raising two foster children whom they wanted to adopt, a state appeals court upheld the ruling by a lower court that the law violated equal protection rights of the couple and the children under the Florida Constitution. The Governor and Attorney General declined to appeal the ruling further, ending Florida's 33-year-old ban on same-sex adoptions.
The Florida Legislature undertook comprehensive adoption reform in 2015. The legislation repealed the 1977 ban on homosexual adoption. It passed the Florida House of Representatives on a 68–50 vote on March 11. On April 15, the Florida Senate passed the bill on a 27–11 vote. Republican Governor Rick Scott signed the bill into law on June 11, and it went into effect on July 1, 2015.
Lesbian couples have access to in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, but only if the parents are married. The Florida Department of Health began automatically recognizing the non-biological mother as a legal parent on May 5, 2016. The move came after three same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit against the state in July 2015 over its practice of treating married same-sex couples differently to married opposite-sex couples; the non-biological father is automatically recognized as a legal parent, but previously this was not the case for the non-biological mother. Additionally, gay male couples are permitted to undertake gestational and traditional surrogacy arrangements under the same terms and conditions as different-sex couples.
On May 17, 2023, DeSantis signed Florida Senate Bill 254, as passed by the state legislature, which will allow child custody modifications on the basis that the child has received, or might receive, gender-affirming care.
Drag performances and minors In December 2022, undercover agents of DeSantis' administration attended a drag performance in Orlando to determine whether the event was violating state obscenity laws, especially if minors were present. The undercover agents found no wrongdoing, and that the venue did not violate state obscenity or decency laws. However, the state filed a complaint against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation, the organizer of the event, claiming that these laws were violated anyways.