Trans candidates demand their seat at the table in the Florida legislature

UnderFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Sunshine State in recent years saw a rapid slate of anti-trans policies implemented. Now three transgender candidates are pursuing seats in the Florida legislature.

Trans womanAshley Brundage and trans manNathan Bruemmer, both Democrats, are taking on Republican incumbents in the Tampa Bay area. Meanwhile, trans womanVance Ahrens, also a Democrat, will challenge one of the greatest sources of anti-transgender rhetoric in the state, running against Florida Rep. Randy Fine for an open seat in the Florida Senate.

All face varying challenges on the campaign trail but earned spots on the November 5 general ballot. The hope is that the next time the Florida legislature convenes and considers taking rights away from transgender Floridians, lawmakers will have to do so with a transgender member on the floor for any vote.

“It would change systematically the entire way the House of Representatives and the entire political operation operates here,” Brundage said. “When you are not at the table with a seat, you are on the menu.”

Brundage, theDemocratic nominee against Republican Florida Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman in House District 65, may be the trans candidate in Florida with the best shot at winning her election. Both she and Bruemmer, who is challenging Republican Florida Rep. Linda Chaney in House District 61, were named to the Florida Democratic Party’sTake Back Florida Distinction Program roster.Equality Florida endorsed both House candidates and Ahrens, and lists the House races as priority contests this fall.

Brundage said the slew of hateful policies emanating from Tallahassee increased her political engagement, but a more personal slight ultimately prompted her to file for office. That started when the Florida legislature waged attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, including an attempt to stop DEI consulting even in private companies. Brundage served as a PNC regional vice president on diversity and inclusion and felt her entire career threatened by the policies. She decided to run for the House.

The threat to her livelihood also prompted Brundage to write a book,Empowering Differences, that earned a Spirit of Community Award from the Florida Commission on the Status of Women and even led to a congratulations letter from DeSantis. But the governor’s office later told the Daily Mail the award would never have been issued if he realized Brundage was transgender. The letter was retracted, and DeSantis did not attend the ceremony where Brundage received the award.

But he did show up to sign Florida’s “don’t say gay” law at a school Brundage’s son attends. “At first I thought, Wow, this guy has nothing better to do but show up in my life,” Brundage said. “Then I realized he had a targeted agenda for schools and was making investments in politicizing school boards.”

Bruemmer’s history in politics goes back farther. He served as president of theFlorida LGBTQ Democratic Caucus before filing for the seat and has worked for years with Equality Florida on training candidates for office. When he saw the prospect of a competitive House race in his own backyard, he decided to file for office himself this year.

It was a late decision. Bruemmer in fact was in Washington attending an event at Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence celebrating Pride and sent some of his paperwork to Florida from D.C. in order to qualify. But like many candidates, he found the change in rhetoric coming from Republican lawmakers had been shocking in recent years.

“Chaney has been lockstep with the DeSantis administration’s priorities, which we now call ‘culture wars,’ instead of solving real problems Floridians need solved,” Bruemmer said.

There may be no greater avatar for that than Fine, a Republican Florida Representative who alarmed LGBTQ+ advocates nationwide when he promised to “eradicate” transgender people. He made the controversial statement after sponsoring a bill widely interpreted as a ban on drag performances in venues open to children.

“If it means ‘erasing a community’ because you have to target children — then, damn right, we ought to do it!” Fine said in 2023.

Ahrens knows she has an uphill fight taking on Fine in Florida Senate District 19, a deep red area on the Atlantic Coast. But she couldn’t let his rhetoric go unaddressed.

“When I saw that he was running, I was already doing work with Equality Florida, and I had already gone up to testify to the medical board on issues,” Ahrens said. “I knew from his social media posts he was coming full out for transgender people in the 2023 legislature, and he did.”

Fine pushed a ban on trans health services for youth, which DeSantis signed into law, and he continually stated from the floor that transgender people were being deceived into a corrupt ideology.

But of note, all of the trans candidates for the Florida legislature have focused more on the issues being ignored by the legislature than the anti-trans rhetoric. Most notably, a homeowner's insurance crisis became magnified as three hurricanes hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in as many months this year.

The candidates on that front appear to be following a strategy forged by Virginia Sen. Danica Roem, whoin 2017 became the first out trans legislator in the nation, first in the House of Delegates, later in the Senate.. Roem, while facing sharply anti-trans rhetoric from her opponent, focused on infrastructure and other pocketbook issues for voters.

“I’m proud to be somebody standing up for all Floridians, not just trans Floridians,” Bruemmer said.

But each also sees a value in having a voice in the room that understands the challenges faced by transgender people and the harm directed by recent policies. “I think like every trans person, my goal is just to pass and live authentically as myself, and not necessarily to have the disclaimer that I am a trans woman,” Ahrens said.

None of the candidates have consulted closely with Roem. Ahrens did meet Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr at an event in Orlando and has worked with her on activation efforts with a Brevard County political group.

Despite the rhetoric of online bigots, the Florida candidates haven’t seen as much overtly anti-trans campaign rhetoric as Roem faced just seven years ago. Ahrens said Fine has refused to debate her and appears to be largely ignoring her candidacy. Bruemmer had one voter want to debate Florida’s trans sports ban at the door.

Brundage has seen personal attacks. She took offense at a political mailer superimposing a picture of her in a bikini over a hurricane, a piece that landed in mailboxes as Brundage helped clean up her mother’s home after Hurricane Helene flooded neighborhoods around Tampa Bay. But she does suspect misleading mailers about her positions on certain issues build on assumptions about her transgender identity. She takes issue, for example, with insinuations she wants “biological men in sports with girls.” “I just think we should leave sports and those decisions to people who get paid to measure estrogen and testosterone,” Brundage said.

At the moment, Florida has just one out LGBTQ+ member in each of the chambers. Shevrin Jones, a gay man, was elected as the firstout Florida senator, while Rep. MicheleRayner, a lesbian, is the only current out LGBTQ+ member of the Florida House. When Rayner first won her seat, the House had three out lawmakers, Jones and two who since were voted out. One, Jennifer Webb, wasdefeated by Chaney.

Bruemmer feels somewhat discouraged by the evolution of LGBTQ+ issues under DeSantis. In the governor's first year in office, he spoke little of LGBTQ+ topics, and legislation like Florida’s Competitive Workforce Act, prohibiting workplace discrimination for gay and transgender people boasted wide bipartisan support. DeSantis eventually implemented much of that bill administratively.

But things shifted as DeSantis started to run for president, and as social conservatives nationwide decided they needed a new bogeyman after Americans embraced marriage equality, trans people appeared to be the issue.

Now the candidates see a need for more trans voiced in the capitol, and not just testifying in front of committees. It could prompt discussions as simple as who can use which restrooms in the House, public facilities governed by a bathroom bill DeSantis signed last year, and what gender appears on IDs for lawmakers.

“Obviously, just me getting elected will change the way they have conversations,” Brundage said. “Ron DeSantis’s neck will be hurting in every room he moves into checking to see if I’m in the room, He will have to do that even in the background.”