Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is taunting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott with LGBTQ+ pride billboards in their possess backyards.
Healey, a Democrat who created heritage by turning into the natioin’s initially overtly lesbian governor, released on Monday a billboard marketing campaign highlighting Massachusetts’ inclusivity toward the LGBTQ+ communities in Florida and Texas, which have executed policies restricting LGBTQ+ rights.
The “Massachusetts for Us All” marketing campaign is aimed at driving tourism to the Bay Point out, which has lengthy been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ legal rights in the United States. Billboards will be posted across New England and New York as nicely as in Florida and Texas.
“At a time when other states are misguidedly proscribing LGBTQIA+ legal rights, we are happy to ship the information that Massachusetts is a safe, welcoming and inclusive put for all,” Healey reported in a information release. “The ‘Massachusetts for Us All’ marketing campaign sends a apparent concept that Massachusetts stands for flexibility and civil rights.”
Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty
She also touted her condition as a fantastic spot for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood to “are living, elevate a household, go to or develop a enterprise.” The billboards feature pictures of LGBTQ+ partners across Massachusetts.
“Today, billboards just like these went up throughout Florida and Texas,” Healey tweeted, showing two of the billboards. “Pleased Delight all people.”
Newsweek reached out to Healey, DeSantis and Abbott for remark via e mail.
The marketing campaign arrives as a lot of in the LGBTQ+ neighborhood alert about an uptick in anti-homosexual and anti-trans rhetoric and insurance policies from the ideal. Companies collaborating in Pride thirty day period have been the focus on of protests and boycotts, and at the very least 491 anti-LGBTQ+ costs have been launched in state legislatures so much this calendar year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The two DeSantis and Abbott have faced criticism for their stances on LGBTQ+ rights. In Texas, for case in point, Abbott signed a law limiting gender-affirming overall health care for transgender youth. DeSantis, whose embrace of suitable-wing social procedures has marked his presidential candidacy, has signed guidelines proscribing the dialogue of LGBTQ+ identities in educational facilities and has feuded with Disney above LGBTQ+ rights.
In the meantime, Democratic-leaning states and towns have sought to highlight their guidance for the LGBTQ+ group in the midst of a national wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
Past year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a marketing campaign inviting members of Florida’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood to go to New York just after DeSantis signed the “You should not Say Homosexual” monthly bill. And California Governor Gavin Newsom has banned point out-funded journey to Florida over its “anti-LGBTQ rules.”
