I'm a millennial who left Florida. Between the unbearable heat and the polarizing political climate, 'everything was making me think I should jump out of this.'

• Harmony Boyd, 28, moved from Plantation, Florida, to a suburb of Boston in September 2022.
• Boyd, who is trans, didn't feel welcome: "It's not the same Florida that I grew up in. It's a lot darker."
• Massachusetts offered Boyd "a deep history and sense of place."

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Harmony Boyd, 28, a lifelong Floridian who moved to Chelsea, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, in 2022. Boyd felt Florida's political — and literal — climate became too difficult to withstand. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

I'm from Plantation, which is a medium-sized city just outside of Fort Lauderdale. All of my family live in Florida, apart from a few people, and it's been my home for more than a quarter of a century.