https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/orlando-citizens-defy-desantis-re
"In July, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a letter to governors in
all 50 states calling for the removal of Pride crosswalks. Within days, the
Florida Department of Transportation followed suit, sending out a memo
declaring that any crosswalks bearing “social, political, or ideological
messages or images” would be stripped away. One of the first to go was the
rainbow crosswalk at the site of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre, where
dozens of LGBTQ+ people were killed. On Tuesday night, DeSantis administration
officials quietly painted over the memorial under cover of darkness. But the
story did not end there: the very next day, Orlando residents rallied at the
site and restored the rainbow colors, defiantly insisting that their community
would not be erased.
According to community members who spoke with
Erin In The Morning, Orlando’s
LGBTQ+ residents and their allies wasted no time in responding. They quickly
organized, gathered at the site, and restored the rainbow colors with
meticulously colored chalk. One witness described how, as people worked to
bring the crosswalk back to life, a rainbow appeared in the sky, further
electrifying the crowd.
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub shooting and National Press
Secretary at HRC, described the moment this way: “After the state blacked out
the Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk, community members colored it in with
chalk. Shortly after, rain came and washed it away. As the sky cleared the
rains left a double rainbow in the sky. Then during the Equality Florida rally
where crowds gathered to resist the DeSantis censorship agenda, volunteers
chalked it again and the rainbow [shone] through.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
