Ron DeSantis rings in ‘Freedom Summer’ by banning rainbows
Gov. Ron DeSantis has added a new layer of irony to his crusade against diversity in Florida. As part of his “Freedom Summer” initiative, he’s requiring bridges in the Sunshine State to only use red, white, and blue lights from Memorial Day through Labor Day. First announced by Florida Director of Transportation Jared Perdue, the requirement prevents cities from lighting up bridges to celebrate holidays like Juneteenth or Pride Month. “Thanks to the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation,” Perdue said. The move seems to be a clear attack on the LGBTQ+ community and the rainbow colors typically used to celebrate Pride Month—a favorite scapegoat for the anti-woke troll governor. DeSantis infamously signed the discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law in March 2022. The bill’s purpose was to prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.” The vagueness puts educators at risk of punishment if they even happen to mention that they are in a same-sex marriage, among other things. This is not the first time DeSantis and the state’s department of transportation have tried to squash colorful lighting schemes on the state’s bridges. Back in 2020, the department of transportation denied St. Petersburg’s request to light up the Sunshine Skyway Bridge for Pride Month. Public outrage led to a reversal of that decision in 2021. Carlos Guillermo Smith, Equality Florida’s senior policy adviser, told The Washington Post that “the bridge lights were about celebrating diversity and inclusion, which will continue to happen in our communities.” “LGBTQ Floridians will proudly raise our flags even higher and our lights will only shine brighter in the darkness they’ve created,” he said. “Pride is the prime example of what patriotism is, the release of government tyranny,” Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride, told the Tampa Bay Times. “To have a place to live free, where every man and woman is created equal and imbued with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When I say I’m patriotic, that’s what I mean.” Cindy Noble, president of Jacksonville’s Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, told Florida’s NBC affiliate, “It’s very disheartening because they did this a couple years ago, and here we are again and it’s not just the group that we represent, this also affects people who celebrate Juneteenth, violence against women’s day, Gun Violence Prevention Day. It's affecting a bunch of groups with important causes.” Jacksonville’s Acosta Bridge has historically been lit up to celebrate various holidays and causes, including gun safety awareness and the city’s minor league baseball team, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Ever the troll, DeSantis seems to be riffing off of the “Freedom Summer” of 1964, when civil rights activists banded together in a massive effort to register southern Black Americans to vote. Like many Republicans, Donald Trump has tried to sidestep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights. But he stumbled during an interview with a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh this week, promising an “interesting” new policy that would let states restrict contraception.. Embedded Content Campaign Action
JoriPress
Gov. Ron DeSantis has added a new layer of irony to his crusade against diversity in Florida. As part of his “Freedom Summer” initiative, he’s requiring bridges in the Sunshine State to only use red, white, and blue lights from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
First announced by Florida Director of Transportation Jared Perdue, the requirement prevents cities from lighting up bridges to celebrate holidays like Juneteenth or Pride Month.
“Thanks to the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation,” Perdue said.
The move seems to be a clear attack on the LGBTQ+ community and the rainbow colors typically used to celebrate Pride Month—a favorite scapegoat for the anti-woke troll governor. DeSantis infamously signed the discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law in March 2022.
The bill’s purpose was to prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.” The vagueness puts educators at risk of punishment if they even happen to mention that they are in a same-sex marriage, among other things.
This is not the first time DeSantis and the state’s department of transportation have tried to squash colorful lighting schemes on the state’s bridges. Back in 2020, the department of transportation denied St. Petersburg’s request to light up the Sunshine Skyway Bridge for Pride Month. Public outrage led to a reversal of that decision in 2021.
Carlos Guillermo Smith, Equality Florida’s senior policy adviser, told The Washington Post that “the bridge lights were about celebrating diversity and inclusion, which will continue to happen in our communities.”
“LGBTQ Floridians will proudly raise our flags even higher and our lights will only shine brighter in the darkness they’ve created,” he said.
“Pride is the prime example of what patriotism is, the release of government tyranny,” Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride, told the Tampa Bay Times. “To have a place to live free, where every man and woman is created equal and imbued with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When I say I’m patriotic, that’s what I mean.”
Cindy Noble, president of Jacksonville’s Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, told Florida’s NBC affiliate, “It’s very disheartening because they did this a couple years ago, and here we are again and it’s not just the group that we represent, this also affects people who celebrate Juneteenth, violence against women’s day, Gun Violence Prevention Day. It's affecting a bunch of groups with important causes.”
Jacksonville’s Acosta Bridge has historically been lit up to celebrate various holidays and causes, including gun safety awareness and the city’s minor league baseball team, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
Ever the troll, DeSantis seems to be riffing off of the “Freedom Summer” of 1964, when civil rights activists banded together in a massive effort to register southern Black Americans to vote.
Like many Republicans, Donald Trump has tried to sidestep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights. But he stumbled during an interview with a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh this week, promising an “interesting” new policy that would let states restrict contraception..
