This article presents ethnographic research about resistance to the anti-TQLGB+ politics in Florida conducted for a year (2023–2024) at 23 public events. My analysis identifies one core way people and groups resisted this current iteration of anti-TQLGB+ politics was via a process of quelling emotion. I detail how quelling emotion was emotion work, resisting the broader culture of fear, enacted by naming fear, facing fear, and being calm and rational. This article contributes to understandings of emotion and social movements by offering a way to conceptualize emotion work as contending with an emotion in which actors are embedded, demonstrating emotion work in response to an outer-ring emotion culture, and conceptualizing a notion of emotional refusal to prevent the viability of an emotion to (re)cement relations of domination and subordination.
AndersonElijah. 1999. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. W.W. Norton & Company.
6.
BraukmanStacy. 2012. Communists and Perverts Under the Palms: The Johns Committee in Florida, 1956-1965. University Press of Florida.
7.
BroadK. L.2011. “Coming Out for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays: From Support Group Grieving to Love Advocacy.” Sexualities14, no. (4): 399–415.
FetnerTina. 2008. How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism. University of Minnesota Press.
12.
FetnerTinaHeathMelanie. 2018 “Studying the “Right” Can Feel Wrong: Reflections On Researching Anti-LGBT Movements.” In Other, Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology, edited by ComptonD’LaneMeadowTeySchiltKristen, 140–153. University of California Press.
13.
FrankGillian. 2013 ““The Civil Rights of Parents”: Race and Conservative Politics in Anita Bryant’s Campaign against Gay Rights in 1970s Florida.” Journal of the History of Sexuality22, no. (1): 126–160.
14.
FuDianaSimmonsErica S.2021. “Ethnographic Approaches to Contentious Politics: The What, How, and Why.” Comparative Political Studies54, no. (10): 1695–1721.
15.
GoldbergAbbie E.2023. Impact of HB 1557 (Florida’s Don’t Say Gay Bill) on LGBTQ+ Parents in Florida. The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law.
16.
GoldbergAbbie E.AbreuRoberto L.2024. “LGBTQ parent concerns and parent–child communication about the Parental Rights in Education Bill (“Don’t Say Gay”) in Florida.” Family Relations73, no. (1), 318–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12894
17.
GoldbergAbbie E.ToomeyRussell B.AbreuRoberto L.2024. ““Don’t Say Gay”: Implications for Outness and Desire to Move Among LGBTQ + Parents in Florida.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy21, no. (3):1189–1205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-024-00982-9
18.
GoodwinJeffJasperJames M.2006. “Emotions and Social Movements”. In StetsJan E.TurnerJonathan H. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30715-2_27
19.
GoodwinJeffJasperJames M.PollettaFrancesca. 2001. Passionate Politics. University of Chicago Press.
20.
GouldDeborah B.2009. Moving Politics Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight against AIDS. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
21.
GuentherKatja M.2009. “The Impact of Emotional Opportunities on The Emotion Cultures of Feminist Organizations.” Gender & Society23, no. (3): 337–362.
22.
HammersleyMartynAtkinsonPaul. 2007. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. 3rd ed. Routledge.
23.
HansonRebeccaRichardsPatricia. 2019. Harassed Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research. University of California Press.
24.
JohnsonDavid K.2005. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. University of Chicago Press.
25.
JurisJeffKhasnabishAlex. 2014. “Immanent Accounts: Ethnography, Engagement, and Social Movement Practice.” In The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements, edited by PortaDonatella dellaDianiMario, 578–92. Oxford University Press.
26.
KlineNolan S.GrinerStacey B.NeelamegamMalineeWebbNathaniel J.MoralesJoél JuniorRhodesScott D.2022. “Responding to “Don’t Say Gay” Laws in the US: Research Priorities and Considerations for Health Equity.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy19: 1397–402.
27.
LevengoodTimothy W.HadlandScott E.2023. “Hostile Laws and Hospitalization: Why Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Threatens Adolescent Lives.” Journal of Hospital Medicine18, no. (5):449–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhm.13038
28.
MasamitsuTaylor. 2023. “Florida’s House Bill 1557 How We Got Here.” American Educational History Journal50, no. (1): 47–61.
29.
MeadowTey. 2018. “The Mess: Vulnerability As Ethnographic Practice.” In Other, Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology, edited by ComptonD’LaneMeadowTeySchiltKristen, 154–66. University of California Press.
PomaA.GravanteT.2017. “Protest, emotion and change: An analysis of two women’s collectives fighting against machismo in Oaxaca, Mexico” Interface9(1): 204.
32.
QuinanC. Q. (2025). “From criminalization to erasure: Project 2025 and anti-trans legislation in the US.” Crime, Media, Culture. https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590241312149
33.
Ruiz-JuncoNatalia. 2013. “Feeling Social Movements: Theoretical Contributions to Social Movement Research on Emotions.” Sociology Compass7, no. (1): 45–54.
34.
SaldañaJohnnyOmastaMatt. 2018. Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
35.
SeidmanSteven. 2002. Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life. Routledge.
36.
SnowDavid A.MossDana M.2014. “Protest on the Fly: Toward a Theory of Spontaneity in the Dynamics of Protest and Social Movements.” American Sociological Review79, no. (6): 1122–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122414554
37.
StoneAmy. 2016. “The Impact of Anti-Gay Politics on the LGBTQ Movement.” Sociology Compass10, no. (6): 459–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12373
38.
TaylorVerta. 1995. “Watching for Vibes: Bringing Emotions into the Study of Feminist Organizations.” In Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women’s Movement, edited by FerreeMyra MarxMartinPatricia Yancey, 223–33. Temple University Press.
TobiasSarahSteinArlene. 2024. Feeling Democracy: Emotional Politics in the New Millennium. Rutgers University Press.
41.
Van NessJustinSummers-EfflerErika. 2019. “Emotions in Social Movements.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Second Edition, edited by SnowDavid A.SouleSarah A.KriesiHanspeterMcCammonHolly J., 411–28. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
WhittierNancy. 2001. “Emotional opportunities.” In Passionate Politics, edited by GoodwinJeffJasperJamesPollettaFrancesca, 267–81. University of Chicago Press.
44.
WhittierNancy. 2021. “How Emotions Shape Feminist Coalitions.” European Journal of Women’s Studies28, no. (3): 369–38.
