Brevard families leaving Florida: Why they say Sunshine State no longer feels like home
Eli Logan lived the first 46 years of her life in her native Florida. She probably, she said, would have "stayed 46 more."
But between the state's politics pushing hard to the right and a slew of new laws affecting Florida's LGBTQ+ community, schools and more, she's joined the ranks of those leaving Florida for places they find safer for themselves and their families.
Logan, her husband and their three daughters recently left Brevard for an area of Georgia that's a splash of political blue northeast of Atlanta. It's a place this nurse practitioner sees as a "better, healthier place" to raise the couple's children, the oldest of whom identifies as gay.
he's not alone. When Logan announced her family's move on Facebook, well wishes were punctuated with messages like "We can’t stay either. It’s not safe and it’s not headed in a healthy direction." Over the past few weeks, other goodbyes have popped up across social media, like that of Stacey and Sanjay Patel, staples of the Brevard County Democratic Party for several years. And Wendy Johnson, who explained in an impassioned Facebook post why she, her husband and their daughter would soon be moving to New York.
Some say the exodus of those feeling disenchanted and disenfranchised has only just started. Even former Florida Rep. David Jolly, a Republican, said he considered leaving the state where he was born and raised, citing DeSantis' attacks on migrants, the LGBTQ community and African Americans.
“Why would I want to raise my kids in an environment in which they’re shamed for embracing diversity of thought and diverse cultures?” Jolly said in a May 21 interview on MSNBC...
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news ... 215225007/
