Several conservative faith leaders in Florida are attempting to sway the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and they have the ear of early frontrunners former President Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis. While their political priorities include education and immigration, their key issues resonate with the religious vote, particularly in Florida where there are significant Latino diasporas. However, some of their priorities, such as education surrounding gender and sexuality, could put the LGBTQ community at risk.
The faith leaders’ top priority is defending their congregations and youth from what they believe are efforts to impose concepts of marriage, family, and identity that run against their values. However, LGBTQ advocates and teachers’ unions argue that the issue of “parental rights” is being used to inject conservative politics into public schools. Conservative pastors like Frank López believe that exposing children to sexually explicit materials in schools without their parents’ knowledge is a form of political indoctrination that “brings conflict to a family.”
While Governor DeSantis signed a bill last year to give parents a say in what books are available in school libraries, targeting the presence of sexually explicit volumes, Rabbi Avrohom Brashevitzky believes that the top concern is the “breakdown in morals and ethics,” which leads to societal ills, including antisemitism. The focus on freedom for conservative faith-based moral values, particularly for youth, is proving to be a winning argument among religious voters nationwide. In Florida, conservative family values might have turned younger Latino voters toward DeSantis, helping to account for his nearly 20 percentage point reelection victory last year.
However, many faith leaders fear holding on to their beliefs could put their churches at risk of being sued, for example, when refusing to celebrate same-sex marriages, or that they might be forced to go against their conscience. The effort of some on the “progressive side” to define religious freedom as freedom to worship but not necessarily the freedom to serve or the freedom to advocate is also a top concern for Thomas Wenski, the Catholic Archbishop of Miami.
Ultimately, faith leaders said that a candidate’s integrity and ability to address their concerns through policies outweighs a candidate’s likability and other personal traits. The Christian church is not about looking for a perfect person or a charismatic person, López said. It wants a person who does what he says and a person who’s aligned with God’s values. As the 2024 election season approaches, it remains to be seen how much influence conservative faith leaders in Florida will have on the Republican nominee and how it will impact LGBTQ rights.