Unlike most of the South, the age of consent in Florida is 18.
The age of consent in this case isn't really relevant: the age below which force or coercion is not required for Sex Trafficking to be illegal is 18 and that's a Federal Law.
There's also the fact that, well, the man was 36 years old at the time of this incident. Even if it happened in a place where the age of consent was 16 I think many people, including myself, would find it incredibly concerning and its certainly not a normal thing - if one of my friends was dating a 17 year old they'd probably not be my friend for much longer and I'm ten years younger than Gaetz. Just because something is legal doesn't mean that its acceptable.
