JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Some high school seniors are looking at colleges outside of Florida because of the governor's moves impacting LGBTQ students. They worry a discriminatory environment is being created on campus; however, those who support the governor say the opposite is happening.
Cody Nobles is a high school senior and does not plan to be on a college campus anywhere in the state. He's part of the LGBTQ community and as a result, at the center of increasingly high-profile battles over education.
"I'll have to walk out of my dorm everyday going, 'Is someone going to hurt me today?'" Nobles said.
When Nobles graduates high school this spring, his college plans are to leave Florida.
"He has literally painted a target on my child's back," said Nobles's mother, Cindy Hill Nobles, about Governor Ron DeSantis. "I don't care what he runs for. I don't care what his political aspirations are. Don't step on my child to get there."
Hill Nobles, who is the president of PFLAG of Jacksonville, says the governor's effort to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses and legislation impacting LGBTQ people is creating a culture of discrimination and potential violence. LGBTQ people are nine times more likely to be victims of violent hate crimes, according to research by the University of California, Los Angeles College of Law.
"Why is it open season on my family just because my family doesn't look like yours?" said Hill Nobles.
First Coast News asked the governor's office what DeSantis wants to say to families like the Nobles and whether he's concerned about students not wanting to go to college in Florida. His office did not answer the specific questions and referred First Coast News to the governor's roundtable titled "Exposing the DEI Scam," which First Coast News covered Monday.
Tiffany Justice is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty and says the governor's actions will protect children.
"I think that's a false equivalency to say that because there aren't DEI programs there would be any danger for any student," Justice said.
Justice calls it "fear mongering" and says suggesting Florida schools would be unsafe is a lie.
"Eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, it's a money suck that takes focus and money away from academic achievement for students," Justice said. "I don't think it'll affect the safety or well-being of students on any of our campuses in Florida and I think if Governor DeSantis felt that it was going to he would certainly work to protect children."
Hill Nobles says her son may go to college out of state, but their family will stay in Florida.
"The fight's just starting," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."
A study by UCLA's law school finds more than half of LGBTQ parents have considered moving out of Florida because of the Parental Rights in Education law, which critics call Don't Say Gay, and 17 percent haven taken steps to move.
NBC News reports Florida is not the only state where LGBTQ students are looking to go to college out of state.