ICYMI

Audubon Park gets a little bit safer, Orange County schools sued for enforcing ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, Gen-Z abortion activist uses Gaetz’s hate against him, and other news you may have missed in the past week.

» Abortion activist raises more than $2 million for reproductive health care after being mocked by Gaetz

A fundraiser started by a teenage abortion activist who was mocked by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has now raised more than $2 million for abortion care. Olivia Julianna, a 19-year-old Texan who works with the political group Gen Z for Change, was thrust into the national spotlight when Gaetz shared a clip of her discussing his speech at a recent Tampa conference. In that speech, Gaetz belittled the appearance of abortion activists. “They’re like five-foot-two, 350 pounds, and they’re like ‘Give me my abortions or I’ll get up and march and protest,’” Gaetz said at the Turning Point USA conference. Gaetz saw Julianna’s criticism of him on TikTok and shared it to his Twitter followers, again taking the opportunity to mock abortion activists’ appearances. Julianna turned that move on its head and used it to fundraise for abortion access. As of this writing, Julianna’s fund has raised more than $2.1 million. “Representative Gaetz’s comments were reprehensible, disgusting, and outright despicable, but I am glad he directed his bigotry in my direction,” she said in a statement last week. “We have now turned hatred into health care, and people across the country will be able to get access to abortion services because of it.”

» Majority of Orlando-area GOP congressional candidates believe 2020 election was illegitimate

Most of the Republican candidates running to represent the Orlando area in Congress do not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election outright. At a forum hosted at the Orlando Science Center last Thursday night, they were asked by moderators if they believed the presidential election was won legitimately. Of the 14 GOP candidates vying to represent three districts, only two said they believed Biden won the White House fairly. The two outliers were Orange County Commissioner Ted Edwards and former John Mica staffer Rusty Roberts. The candidates are running to represent Districts 7, 10 and 14, but District 7 potentials Cory Mills, Anthony Sabatini and Brady Duke did not participate in the forum. The rhetoric echoes talk from the top of the Republican party, who have won the popular vote in a presidential election just once in the last 30 years.

» Orange County Public Schools named in lawsuit against ‘Don’t Say

Gay’ law

Parents, students and a nonprofit organization have filed a federal lawsuit against four Florida school districts, challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that restricts “instruction” on gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Orlando, seeks to block the school boards in Orange, Indian River, Duval and Palm Beach counties from carrying out HB 1557, which passed during this year’s legislative session after fierce debate. Republican lawmakers titled the measure the “Parental Rights in Education” bill. Opponents labeled it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued in the 53-page complaint that the law violates First Amendment, due-process and equal-protection rights and improperly chills discussion of issues such as gender identity and sexual orientation. “Florida enacted HB 1557 to silence and erase lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people and families,” the lawsuit states. “The law is profoundly vague and requires schools to ban undefined broad categories of speech, based on undefined standards such as ‘appropriateness.’” As an example, it said the law has led the Orange County and Palm Beach County districts to remove LGBTQ-related materials from school libraries. Also, it said the Palm Beach County School Board last month adopted a policy to carry out the law. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday in Orlando include Jen and Matt Cousins, the parents of four children in Orange County schools; Will Larkins, a rising senior at Orange County’s Winter Park High School who is president of the school’s Queer Student Union; David Dinan and Vik Gongidi, a married same-sex couple who have two children in Indian River County schools; and the nonprofit CenterLink, Inc., which has LGBTQ community centers in Orange, Duval and Palm Beach counties.

» Corrine Drive crosswalk makes crossing to East End Market safer

Orlando is a dangerous city to be a pedestrian, but at least one part of town is working on being safer. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Commissioner Robert Stuart were on hand last week to help install a signaled crosswalk on Corrine Drive. The crossing at East End Market will help alleviate risk at a frequently dangerous intersection. The crosswalk is one small part of a master plan for the road that was first shared in 2019. The plan calls for expanded sidewalks and a 12-foot-wide path for pedestrian and cyclist use. The report noted that 8,000 people live 10 minutes away from Corrine Drive, but are wary of walking around there due to unsafe conditions. Orlando has been named the deadliest city for pedestrians in the U.S. several times, only falling in the most recent rankings because other cities saw their death tolls rise. Though the city is no longer the most dangerous place for pedestrians, it still isn’t particularly pleasant to walk around, but that’s not to say work isn’t being done. Initiatives like the one on Corrine Drive are popping up all over the area as part of a continuing project to make Orlando less car-dependent. Tanya Wilder, director of the city’s transportation department, recently told Orlando Weekly that her goal “is to diversify and to focus beyond just roads and make it more people-centric than carcentric.”

» DeSantis files complaint against restaurant that allows children, hosts drag brunches

Gov. Ron DeSantis is looking to take away the liquor license of a Miami restaurant that allows children at their weekend-morning drag shows. The governor filed a complaint against R House in Wynwood after the conservative outrage wellspring Libs of TikTok hosted a video of a drag queen walking hand-in-hand with a child during one of the brunches. The complaint was filed under laws against public nuisances in Florida. Investigations of the restaurant found that they have a children’s menu — understandable, as they are a restaurant. Still, DeSantis acted incredulous while speaking at a Tampa press conference. “We said wait a minute, having kids involved in this is wrong,” DeSantis said. “That is not consistent with our law and policy in the state of Florida and it is a disturbing trend in our society to try to sexualize these young people. That is not the way you look out for our children, you protect children, you do not expose them to things that are inappropriate.” DeSantis repeatedly mischaracterized the R House as a bar to gin up outrage that children are allowed to accompany their parents to the weekend brunch shows. “They actually had agents going to this place and effectively just gathering information, getting intelligence, seeing what’s going on,” DeSantis said. “And what they found was, not only were there minors there — and these are sexually explicit drag shows — the bar had a children’s menu. And you think to yourself, ‘Give me a break, what’s going on?’” Yes, in Ron DeSantis’ Florida we do indeed often think to ourselves, “Give me a break, what’s going on?”