US House member and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds (R-FL) calls himself a “Trump-supporting, gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect Black man.” Byron Donalds’ LGBTQ+ legislative record not only aligns him with MAGA’s anti-queer ideology but suggests that he’d be as antagonistic towards LGBTQ+ civil rights and expression as his home state’s current Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Donalds has not only opposed any advance of LGBTQ+ equality, but he is also at the conservative vanguard of those who want to repeal already-existing pro-LGBTQ+ policies, including those that support transgender Americans.
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Byron Donalds at a glance
- Location: Naples, Florida
- Position sought: Governor of Florida
- Current position: US House member
- Party affiliation: Republican
- Race/ethnicity: Jamaican/Panamanian-American
- Gender identity: Cisgender male
- Sexual orientation: Heterosexual
- LGBTQ+ ally: No
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Biography
Born October 28, 1978, in Brooklyn, New York, Donalds was charged during his teens and young adulthood with marijuana possession and depositing a bad check, but these records were later sealed and expunged. He married in 1999 and graduated from Florida State University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in finance and marketing. That same year, he divorced his first wife, Bisa Hall.
He married his current wife, Erika Lees, in 2003. He worked as a credit analyst and manager at TIB Bank from that year until 2007, then became a portfolio manager and, in 2015, worked as a financial advisor for Wells Fargo. In 2010, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing the former’s poor handling and understanding of the 2008 financial crisis and the allure of the Tea Party movement, which later evolved into the MAGA wing of the Republican Party.
He finished fifth in his 2012 campaign for the US House but was later elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016. He successfully ran for the US House in 2020, describing himself as a “Trump-supporting, gun-owning, liberty-loving, pro-life, politically incorrect Black man.” He was blocked from joining the Congressional Black Caucus because the group found his embrace of Trump’s ideology and willingness to overturn the 2020 election results as incompatible with the caucus’s core values and mission.
In February 2025, Donalds announced his campaign to become Florida’s governor.
Byron Donalds’ stance on LGBTQ+ rights
Donalds has been a regular guest on podcasts of the Family Research Council (FRC), the oldest anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. The FRC was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for vilifying LGBTQ+ people as pedophiles, seeking to reinstate laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual encounters between adults, and trying to repeal bans against conversion therapy and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
Same-sex marriage
During his time in the US House, Donalds voted against the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, a law requiring federal and state governments to legally recognize same-sex marriages.
“Don’t Say Gay” laws/LGBTQ+ discussions in schools
In March 2023, Donalds voted for the so-called Parents Bill of Rights Act, a Republican bill that opponents say would allow anti-LGBTQ+ activists to target and eliminate queer-inclusive content in public schools by making curriculum and library book lists available to parents.
His congressional bio says he “has stood in the trenches against the rise of woke culture in schools,” a dog whistle suggesting opposition to LGBTQ+-inclusive school policies. He has supported defunding public schools and using taxpayer funds to support private and charter schools, a longtime aim of Christian conservative anti-LGBTQ+ activists.
During his time in the Florida House of Representatives, he reportedly championed legislation allowing any community member to object to any part of the public school curriculum or to challenge books for removal from school bookshelves.
Trans access to public restrooms
As a congressman in 2021, Donalds pressed the Lee County School Board to reverse guidance allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity.
Trans athletes in sports
Donalds voted for the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would have amended Title IX — the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in government-funded schools and education programs — to prohibit schools from allowing trans female athletes to participate in athletic programs or activities “designated for women or girls.” The Congressional Equality Caucus noted that the bill could have forced “any student to answer invasive personal questions about their bodies & face humiliating physical inspections to ‘prove’ that they’re a girl.”
While campaigning against David Jolly, the Democratic front-runner for governor, Donalds said, “David Jolly is somebody who thinks it’s still okay for boys to be in girls’ sports. Somebody who thinks it’s still okay for boys to be in girls’ sports. It’s only him and the WNBA who think this.”
Donalds also praised WNBA player Sophie Cunningham and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, both who have made repeated comments against trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.
Gender-affirming care for minors
In 2020, Donalds co-sponsored a Florida bill that would have criminally imprisoned doctors providing transition-related care to minors.
“David Jolly still thinks it’s okay to transgender kids. This is sick to me. I don’t even understand this,” Donalds said at his rally. “Even the American Medical Association has finally realized that this is insanity. That you do not take the puberty from kids. You protect their puberty. Even European countries have realized this now, and they’ve stopped this practice. But David Jolly and the radical Democrat socialists-they still support it.”
Opposition to diversity and inclusion initiatives
In 2025, he opposed DEI initiatives in the University of Florida and claimed that DEI policies “[ignore] the ability to actually do the job” and “put diversity for diversity’s sake ahead of qualifications.”
Conversion therapy
In January 2020, then-Florida State Representative Byron Donalds co-sponsored House Bill 537, a measure to override local conversion therapy bans and allow it to be legally practiced in residential settings.
Discrimination protections
In 2020, Donalds and six other Republican state legislators introduced a package of anti-LGBTQ bills — including one that would have repealed local ordinances protecting LGBTQ employees and another that would have imprisoned doctors providing transition-related care to minors.
Byron Donalds’ career
- Graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Arts in finance and marketing in 2002
- Worked in financial institutions from 2003 to 2015
- Unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House in 2012
- Elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016
- Elected to the US House in 2020
- Announced gubernatorial campaign in 2025
Byron Donalds’ LGBTQ+ record shows he opposes true equality
Byron Donalds’ LGBTQ+ stances clearly demonstrate his opposition to our very existence, let alone our civil rights. If elected as Florida’s governor, his record and rhetoric both suggest he’ll use the levers of government power to ensure that anti-LGBTQ+ policies remain a mainstay in the Sunshine State.
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