7 Day Florida Roadtrip
In partnership with roadsurfer
A queer friendly roadtrip built for creative travelers and anyone craving something deeper. This trip is about moving through Florida with care, visibility, and intention – creating freely, exploring boldly, and feeling safe while doing it.
As a photographer, I travel often for work. It also happens to be a dream of mine to travel the world and document it. One of my biggest goals is to live the van life with my partner. So getting the opportunity to work with roadsurfer, an incredible van rental company, to go on a roadtrip and document it, was quite literally a dream come true.
I planned a 7-day road trip around Florida with my partner, starting and ending in Miami, Florida. Now, Florida is a place where queer and trans rights are actively being restricted. As a trans creator, I felt a responsibility to use this trip to document what it truly means to move through a place where my existence is being politicized
In recent years, Florida has passed a number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws…
In 2023, the Florida legislature passed an anti-trans bathroom law that—in certain settings—makes it criminal trespass to refuse to leave a restroom or changing facility that does not align with an individual’s sex assigned at birth after being told to do so by a government employee. (https://www.aclufl.org/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-floridas-public-restroom-changing-facility-ban/)
In 2023 there was a sweeping restriction on gender-affirming medical care, prohibiting government entities including the state Medicaid program from providing insurance coverage for any gender-affirming care and altogether banning gender affirming care for children under 18. It also allows certain gender-affirming procedures to be entered as evidence of child abuse in custody proceedings and grants the state emergency jurisdiction over children who receive such care. (https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/sites/default/files/2024-12/Lawful%20Extremism%20Florida%20Anti-Trans%20Laws%20Dec%202024%201.pdf?fv=Nva8nLo5)
In 2023 there was a bill that established penalties for businesses that admit children to “adult live performances,” a measure meant to target drag shows without specifically naming them.
HB 1521 targets individuals who use a public restroom assigned to a gender that does not correspond to their sex as assigned at birth. It defines “female” as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs,” while defining “male” as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”
In 2024, Republican members passed HB 1233/1639, a sweeping statute requiring trans people to list their sex assigned at birth on government documents or risk revocation of the document. HB 1233/1639 also revives the attempt to require insurance coverage for reversing the effects of gender-affirming care. It further requires coverage of treatments generally known as “conversion therapy”.
So this roadtrip wasn’t just about travel. It was about visibility, intention, and care. It was about refusing to shrink ourselves in spaces that don’t always feel safe for us. And instead, choosing to create, to be seen, and to experience the beauty of the world.
It was about documenting the tension between beautiful landscapes and the laws written to control who is allowed to exist within them. We wanted to show that queer people are still here. That we are still moving through the world, still creating art, still loving each other loudly, and still deserving of access to it all.
Because beyond legislation and politics, we deserve to experience as much of this world as we can without fear for our safety.
And for us… van life isn’t just a dream of travel. It’s a dream of freedom, visibility, and the right to exist anywhere we choose to go and experience it as the people we choose to be.
We also chose to work with some really great businesses and made specific stops on our roadtrip so that you can feel safe experiencing and exploring the state of Florida as freely as my we did.
Feel free to check out our full itinerary below and look through all the photos and videos we got along our trip! More content will be added soon!
See more photos and purchase prints from the Everglades Airboat Tour on my portfolio!
Lake Louisa State Park Campground
Santos Trailhead and Campground
Silver Springs Get Up and Go Kayaking
Clearwater Causeway
St. Petersburg, Florida
Vinoy Park
Tampa Bay Fun Boat (Use code “SAMUELAVERY” for a discount when booking!)
Florida Keys Scenic Drive
