LGBT rights in Florida
| LGBT rights in Florida | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? |
Legal since 2003 (Lawrence v. Texas) |
| Gender identity/expression | Altering sex on birth certificate requires court order or SRS and legal name change |
| Discrimination protections | None statewide |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships |
Same-sex marriage legal since 2015 |
| Adoption | Legal since 2010 |
LGBT people in the U.S. state of Florida face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26, 2003, while same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6, 2015.
After Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821, the Territorial Legislature enacted laws against fornication, adultery, bigamy, and incest, as well as against "open lewdness, or...any notorious act of public indecency, tending to debauch the morals of society." Florida's first specific sodomy law, which was enacted in 1868 and made sodomy a felony, read: "Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding twenty years." In 1917, the Florida Legislature added a lesser crime, a second-degree misdemeanor: "Whoever commits any unnatural and lascivious act with another person shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months."
Florida courts interpreted the 1868 law to prohibit all sexual activity between two men or two women. In 1971, the Florida Supreme Court, ruling in Franklin v. State, struck down the "crime against nature" statute as unconstitutionally vague. The court retained the state's prohibition on sodomy by ruling that anal and oral sex could still be prosecuted under the lesser charge of "lewd and lascivious" conduct.
Same-sex sexual activity remained illegal in Florida until 2003, when the United States Supreme Court struck down all state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas. As of 2017, the state's sodomy law, though unenforceable, had not been repealed by the Florida legislature.
The state enacted legislation banning same-sex marriage in 1977. Since the passage of Florida Amendment 2 in November 2008 by a vote of 61.9% in favor and 38.1% opposed, both same-sex marriage and civil unions have been banned by Florida's state constitution.
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