Is Florida safe for a trans woman on holiday?

The state’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has waged war on the rights of minorities, so transgender woman Diana Thomas feared that Florida might prove a hostile holiday destination. But then she arrived in Key West to find the residents and hoteliers had rolled out the red carpet...

Diana Thomas went in search of a destination that would suit a solo traveller (Diana Thomas/iStock)

By the start of last November, I was absolutely shattered. It had not been a good year. I had undergone emergency spinal surgery, was diagnosed with cancer, suffered months of constant physical pain, and had watched my mother die.

At this point, I had not had a proper holiday in almost a decade and clearly, it was time I took one.

Scrabbling around the internet in search of a welcoming environment for a solo traveller with multiple health issues who was also transgender – a pretty niche market by any standards – I found a place in Key West, Florida called Alexander’s Guesthouse.