A few weeks ago, quietly and almost without a trace, Visit Florida, the official agency promoting travel to Florida and representing the businesses and interests of this vast multi-billion-dollar tourism industry, removed from its website anything and everything LGBTQ+. This sector brings in billions of dollars to the state’s economy each year and the elimination of this page and links to affiliated webpages threatens businesses, jobs and tax revenues that benefit all Floridians.

If there was any question why Visit Florida would do such a thing, it was answered Tuesday when Dana Young, the tourism marketing agency’s CEO said, “Visit Florida is a taxpayer-funded organization, and as such … our marketing strategy, our materials and our content must align with the state.”

Robert Kesten is executive director of the Stonewall Museum in Fort Lauderdale.

This issue is of importance to us at Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library as we — a national organization headquartered in Florida, with a mission to protect, preserve and present the history and culture of the LGBTQ+ community — exist to ensure that our community is not erased, is not invisible and remains a vibrant part of every community across the nation and in our home state of Florida.

To say that the last few years have been anything but a challenge would be insincere. Books removed from shelves, attacks on health care and bathroom use, and even legislation telling people that they cannot choose their own names and or pronouns makes this all very personal.

Banning symbols, photographs and content from schools, state agencies and establishing a state of fear for government workers, civil servants and others across the state has become the norm. Sowing confusion and uncertainty have become a government strategy, and now, our state government seeks to weaken the commercial sector, threatening jobs in the private and public sectors and again calling into question American and Floridian citizens’ human and civil rights.

Florida has been here before, and this is why libraries and archives are so important. In Florida, there is a history of raiding bars frequented by gays and lesbians. There was the Johns Committee, an official effort in the 1950s and 1960s to keep gays and lesbians out of government service and out of the teaching profession. In the 1970s, Anita Bryant challenged equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community. The language she used is being used today across Florida, pretending to be one thing when it is clearly something else.

Knowing this history, knowing that our community has overcome these attacks before and continues to come back stronger, better organized and able to take on challenges of hate and prejudice gives us confidence in the future. As government tries to cover over this history and sow fear, we must be vigilant and speak out against prejudice of all kinds.

Unlike in the past, our community now has out leaders in business and government. We are not hiding. We are living our lives in the world, we are part of every community and family here in Florida and around the world. Where our families, at one time, would disown us, most of us are welcomed and loved. Where we would lose our jobs or housing, we are now known for the creative energy, neighborhood improvements and economic strength we bring.

With Stonewall’s archives and library, with our traveling exhibitions available to all to be seen across this state and nation, with this year being the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, we are ready for the challenges thrown at us. We know our history and our value to the cultural and economic life in the communities we live in. We know that if the state refuses to promote our businesses to the world when it tries to sell Florida to tourists, we will find ways to do it ourselves. If Florida tries to remove mention of us from libraries, we will make books available through our own networks. We will continue to build relationships with other communities, with our families, with our friends, and we will succeed, because when you look at the historical record, that is what we do.

The Johns Committee and Anita Bryant are in our archives as a reminder of the past. The current Don’t Say Gay climate will soon join them as part of the record and remind us of a time when hate, fear and ignorance failed once again.

Robert Kesten is executive director, Stonewall National Museum, Archives and Library in Fort Lauderdale.