I fled DeSantis’s Florida to escape homophobia but it followed me all the way to Spain

Madrid Pride
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Moving to Spain had always been a dream of mine. I longed for a life of relaxing in an open-air plaza in Madrid or Barcelona and dining on tapas, tortillas, and wine. The idea of taking siestas in the middle of the day and enjoying month-long vacations in August tempted me as a young person. As I grew older and became more open with my identity as a queer man, I discovered Spain was also one of the first openly queer-friendly countries. Less than a year after I graduated high school in 2005, Spain became the third European country to grant same-sex couples the right to marry. This heightened my feeling that Spain was where I truly belonged.

Last May, I decided to pack all my things and move to Barcelona. I did it for two reasons: To fulfill my lifelong dream and to escape an ever-increasing wave of conservative laws making my queer existence more and more difficult. I fled from Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis had just enacted the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law. The law prohibits…

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