FL NOW demands a Florida state budget to adequately support community needs.

Orlando, FL — The Florida National Organization for Women (FL NOW) denounces the 2025 state budget and escalating detention practices as a coordinated attack on women, LGBTQ+ communities, and immigrant families across the state.

Governor Ron DeSantis’s budget slashes essential services while expanding systems of surveillance, incarceration, and abandonment. The consequences are deadly.

Budget Cuts That Harm:

• Mental health support for survivors of the Pulse massacre vetoed—erasing trauma-informed care for LGBTQ+ Floridians.
• Housing programs for homeless LGBTQ+ youth defunded, halting shelter expansion and leaving vulnerable teens without safe options.
• Over 1,000 positions were cut from the Department of Health and Department of Children and Families—gutting maternal care, domestic violence response, and elder services.

Detention Facilities in Crisis:

• Krome Detention Center (Miami) is operating at nearly triple capacity. Medical emergencies have surged, and at least three deaths have been reported this year. Advocates working with those confined at this facility describe conditions as “absolutely horrendous.”
• Baker Correctional Institution (Sanderson) is being repurposed into a mass deportation hub, despite community opposition. Lack of transparency in repurposing plans resulted in local residents being blindsided, and fears are mounting.

“This is a deliberate dismantling of care infrastructure and a deepening of carceral control,” said Julie Kent, President of FL NOW. “Florida’s most vulnerable are being sacrificed to political theater and cruelty.”

FL NOW calls on elected officials, community leaders, and national partners to reject this budget and demand accountability for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Florida’s detention centers.

We demand:

• Restoration and increases in funding for LGBTQ+ mental health and youth housing.
• Full staffing and oversight of public health agencies.
• Immediate investigation into deaths and conditions at Krome and Baker with immediate action to rectify the problems.
• A moratorium on detention expansion and carceral repurposing.

“Florida deserves a budget rooted in care, equity, and liberation—not one built on fear and disposability.” said Debbie Deland, VP of FL NOW.