On Wednesday night last week, a huge electronic road sign outside of Orlando airport read “Kill All Gays”. The sign was hacked on a day when Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed four new anti-LGBTQ+ laws, as part of a Bill package he calls “Let kids be kids”.

It includes laws that restrict drag shows, makes it a misdemeanour trespassing offence to use a bathroom that does not correspond to your sex at birth, and expands the ”don’t say gay” laws that constrain teachers mentioning sexual orientation or gender in their classrooms.

In May, he gave approval to a Bill that bans school employees from addressing students by pronouns other than those matching their sex at birth. Laws will also restrict gender-affirming care for adults, while banning it for children. One of the Bill’s most controverisal aspects is that it suggests a court could temporarily remove children from their homes if they receive gender-affirming care.

Similar laws are being passed all over the US. However, what is happening in Florida feels critical, as DeSantis is likely to announce his candidacy for president, possibly as soon as this week. His crusade against anybody outside the gender norm is relentless, historic and raising his profile.

After he signed legislation defunding diversity programmes at Florida’s universities and colleges, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People joined the League of United Latin American Citizens and Equality Florida in issuing a travel advisory for Florida. The organisation said that under DeSantis, the state has become “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals”.

Anna Eskamani, a Florida state representative, posted on Twitter: “The rhetoric is already bad, the policies dangerous - and all of it has and will translate into violence.” This is not an exaggerated concern in a state where 49 people were massacred at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

Meanwhile, across the continent of the very divided United States of America, the most populous state of California is striving for inclusivity. The Palo Alto school district, where I reside, uses a sex education curriculum that introduces elementary kids to the reality of multiple gender identities through a cartoon figure called the GenderBread person. It teaches that there are many components of each person’s identity, and that their identity makes them unique and an important part of the school community. One elementary teacher, Valerie Sabbag, says the message is that “however that puzzle comes together, it’s their perfect puzzle”. Students, she says, are open to learning about different gender identities but “are actually more concerned about hair and body odour”.

Just when I was under the illusion the US was moving forward regarding LGBTQ rights, many anti-LGBTQ laws are being passed.

If she was in Florida, she would be fired for the same presentation that she is mandated to teach in California. DeSantis’s slogan, Let kids be kids, implies that “woke left” educators’ indoctrination of children is causing gender non-conformity.

I’m the adviser for the Gender Sexuality Alliance at the high school I teach in in Sunnyvale, California. At a meeting last Friday, staff and students gathered to discuss expanding our gender-neutral spaces for changing rooms and bathrooms at school. Having easy access to a bathroom without needing a key is essential, students and teachers believe. “Most students just do not use the bathroom at school because they don’t have a safe place,” says Tara Wojeck, teacher and parent of a trans child.

One trans student worries that DeSantis’s laws are “gonna kill people”.

Why the sudden surge in anti-trans laws now in 2023? “Now that everybody’s finally coming out, we actually exist, you can’t push us under the rug. They don’t like that,” the student says. “They’re doing whatever they have to do to get back in control. They want their all-white, all-old-guy governments back.”

Many in the progressive Bay Area feel we are immune to the laws being passed in other states. But an art teacher at our school, Timna Naim, who is non-binary, doesn’t feel insulated from the rest of the country. “I don’t feel safe in California because DeSantis could be the next president. He has made it clear that his aim is to build his base by attacking the trans community. He wants this to be normal practice that trans people are not acknowledged as real people.”

The teacher points out that an e-petition calling for Canada to allow trans people to claim asylum there recently went viral. “Canada is considering refugee status for trans people. We’re at that point where it feels like an attack on our existence.”

Just when I was under the illusion the US was moving forward regarding LGBTQ+ rights, many anti-LGBTQ+ laws are being passed. Marketing slogans such as “let kids be kids” sound benign, yet they are not. It really means let kids be kids the way we want them to be, under our control. Trans people are a vulnerable minority and an easy target, but they are just the first target in the ideological war DeSantis and his followers are waging against anyone who does not conform to their idea of “normal” and are willing to live their lives within its narrow parameters.

Meanwhile, Wojeck continues her fight for the trans community her child is part of. “It’s a really weird, scary world right now. I will never understand how they’re justifying hating people.”

Emer Martin is an Irish writer and teacher living in California. Her fifth novel Thirsty Ghosts will be released this year with Lilliput Press.