Florida Colleges Are Shuttering LGBTQ+ Centers Because of DeSantis' "Anti-Woke" Crusade

Samantha Riedel
·3 min read
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Bloomberg

The University of North Florida (UNF) shuttered three offices dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) this week, complying with a law passed last year that prohibits state funding for such programs.

UNF’s Intercultural Center, Interfaith Center, LGBTQ Center, Women's Center, and Office of Diversity and Inclusion are closed as of this week, WTLV reported. The university’s Victim Advocacy Program, which deals with sexual misconduct on campus, was transferred to the office of the Dean of Students, UNF Media Relations Manager Amanda Ennis told the network.

The university has been in the process of closing all five offices since last year, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 266 into law, banning Florida College System schools from maintaining DEI programs like LGBTQ+ centers. State-funded schools also may not “promote or engage in political or social activism,” nor offer courses that are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” The bill was originally authored by state Sen. Erin Grall, who was elected in 2022 after six years in the state House of Representatives. Grall has authored numerous DeSantis-approved bills, including several abortion restrictions and the anti-trans “Safety in Private Spaces Act.”

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees Florida’s state university system, confirmed it would phase out all such programs in January, sparking campus protests. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a policy director at the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, criticized the Board for acquiescing to DeSantis’ demands. “The Board of Governors had the opportunity to hit the brakes, but instead, shamefully followed their censorship agenda off a cliff in service to DeSantis’s failed political ambitions,” Smith told NBC in January.

Ennis told WTLV that staffers who were employed at the now-closed offices “have moved to other open positions in the university.” Multiple staff members left the university ahead of the programs’ end, with several jumping ship to OneJax Inc., an interfaith diversity nonprofit that split from its partnership with UNF last July.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to find a different vehicle for this work or it will just go away,’” said Matt Hartley, former director of UNF’s Interfaith Center and new director of interfaith programs at OneJax, in an interview with the Florida Times-Union in November.

Other Florida colleges have already closed programs to comply with the new policies. The University of Florida in Gainesville announced it had ended all DEI programs and contracts in a March memo, with the student-run Independent Florida Alligator estimating that a combined 28 jobs and faculty appointments had been eliminated. Florida Atlantic University also closed its programs after the law first took effect last year.

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The bills represent “an agenda of extreme censorship and government intrusion,” LGBTQ\+ advocacy group Equality Florida said.

DeSantis, long an opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, has set his political sights on DEI programs as a key part of his ongoing “anti-woke” crusade in Florida. After effectively taking over the board of progressive liberal arts school New College in early 2023, DeSantis abolished the university’s gender studies program in August thanks to a motion from board member Christopher Rufo (the architect of the anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” panic). DeSantis’ attacks have been met with frequent student protests, with some protestors alleging they experienced police brutality as a result.

Anti-DEI policies have proliferated, especially in conservative enclaves, over the past several years. An Alabama law passed in March banned DEI programs and courses on the grounds that they are “divisive concepts,” while simultaneously requiring all multi-stall restrooms be strictly divided based on sex assigned at birth. Republicans made multiple attempts to strip funding from DEI programs in March’s omnibus spending package, but those riders were eventually removed from the final budget.

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