Almost 200 people demonstrated at Florida’s Capitol building to express their displeasure with Gov. Ron DeSantis’s vigorous anti-woke agenda and a slew of bills that they say jeopardize them and their community.

Those at the rally on March 13, organized by Equality Florida, voiced outrage at bills enacted or pending yanking from school libraries books with sexualized content targeting young readers, banning transgender medical procedures for those under 18, and limiting discussions of human sexuality for young schoolchildren.

Equality Florida’s press secretary Brandon Wolf, who emceed the event, decried the state’s “hostile takeovers of higher education and more assaults on bodily autonomy.

“Now, if that doesn’t sound like freedom to you, that’s because it’s not freedom. Free states don’t ban books,” Wolf said.

“Free states don’t criminalize health care. Free states don’t throw parents in jail for caring for their children.

“Free states don’t censor the bits of history that made those in power uncomfortable. There is no freedom in a government dictating what people can read or who they can be.”

“We are here to stand up, to push back, and to fight for real freedom in the state of Florida because real freedom is worth fighting for.”

Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) said the state had been “so close” to real gender equality.

“And what happened? What changed? All of a sudden, being fascist was cool. And a governor who wants to commit genocide on trans people.

“We can’t sugarcoat it. The buzzwords, the talking points, don’t work anymore.”

A poster in her office contains the quote, “I would rather die fighting than die giving them what they want,” Eskamani said.

“Every culture war is a class war,” Eskamani said. “I’ve been saying this for a while, but I just want to put a point to it.

“Because whenever you see people like Governor DeSantis attacking individuals based on what he says is culture, really what he is doing is widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

“Because we know that when you go after gender-affirming care for the families of means who need to access this care, they will find a way to do that. It’s still not going to be easy.”

But not all families have the resources to do that, she said.

“There’s going to be the families of color that are not going to be able to access the same type of medical treatment.”

Paula Piper said her child Hunter, born a boy, is featured as a female model in this month’s Vogue magazine after completing gender transition five years ago.

She described Hunter’s tendencies to act like a girl at a very young age. Hunter requested to go on hormone blockers at age 15 and, by 18, had completed the transition to being a woman.

Piper mentioned research she says suggesting the brains of transgender children are different at birth. She decried the high number of transgender children she said committed suicide because society failed to understand them.

“Please let doctors guide us through these challenges as we help our transgender children grow and live their best lives,” Piper said.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat representing parts of Dade and Broward counties, said the legislature has more than 20 bills “targeting the LGBT community.”

“We as a state should be working every day not to make your life hell,” Jones said. “We have to come to the Capitol to protect our dignity, to legitimize our existence here.”

“There’s an old saying that some people are going to leave a mark and some people are going to leave a stain,” Jones said. He said of his fellow legislators, “You’re going to leave a stain on this country.”

“As an LGBT person,” said Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, a Democrat representing parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, “they know that you’re a conduit of liberation. That’s why they’re trying to kill you.”

Emer Roy Mulcahy compared her youth in Ireland during “The Troubles” of the 1970s with living in Florida now.

Then, she said, “I could stay home from downtown, from where there will be car bombings. I feel more scared now than I ever did growing up there.”

She choked up as she talked about the state’s alleged interference in family life, schools, and doctor’s offices.

Also choking up at the podium was a speaker who followed her. A young person named Shane talked about problems even shopping for a shirt at Walmart. “I can’t go into public restrooms. I can’t go into changing rooms.”

Shane accused the Republican Party of “getting increasingly authoritarian.”

One of the audience, Jon, 30, from the Miami area, told The Epoch Times he always knew he was gay. Growing up was hard, with no one to talk to about it and the issue having little visibility.

“I grew up confused and alone.”

He and his partner, who have been together nine years, have set a wedding date in August but have already married legally. They fear the Supreme Court will overturn the Obergefell decision to legalize gay marriage nationally, and if so, they fear Florida will revert to banning it.

They met as freshmen at Tallahassee’s Florida State University and have been together nine years, “longer than gay marriage has been legal in Florida,” he said.

Jon said opposition to LGBT issues is sometimes seen as a “faith” issue but notes that he grew up in the Chabad community, a Jewish movement that is Orthodox and Chasidic. He’s less Orthodox himself nowadays, he said.

“At the time it was sort of don’t ask, don’t tell,” he said. “But when I came out, it wasn’t like I had to go.” Chabad was accepting of him, he said. “I feel very blessed as a gay Jewish person. My faith is very pro-LGBT.”

Rally participants spread out over the Capitol to talk to lawmakers. One organizer said they didn’t have meetings with Republicans scheduled that day but hoped to have some the next day.