Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Washington Post reports:
Rick Scott, when he was Florida’s governor, made the proclamation a year ago to mark the anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub two years before. A gunman killed 49 people at the LGBTQ-oriented club in 2016, what was then the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, and Scott, now a Republican senator, noted that the shooting would leave a lasting impact “on our state and communities, including Florida’s LGBTQ community.”
But when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued his own proclamation on Tuesday, the eve of the June 12 anniversary, the document excluded any mention of the LGBTQ community. In its place was a reference to “Orlando and the Central Florida community,” whom the governor said he would stand with against terrorism. The exclusion in the otherwise word-for-word remembrance was quickly noted.
A spokesperson for DeSantis says the proclamation will be reissued and blames an unnamed “staff member” for stripping out the LGBTQ reference.
@GovRonDeSantis has stripped any mention of the #LGBTQ community in remembering #Pulse. This is completely straight-washed and an insult to #HD47.
Based on these side-by-side Pulse proclamations, Governor Rick Scott was a better friend to LGBTQ Floridians than DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/2nvUE343XG
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani ? (@AnnaForFlorida) June 12, 2019
Gov. DeSantis removes LGBTQ reference from Pulse anniversary proclamation https://t.co/ptzSDlAEHQ pic.twitter.com/Px8JTgy1yj
— New York Post (@nypost) June 12, 2019
A DeSantis spokeswoman blamed a “staff error” for the original Pulse proclamation that failed to mention LGBTQ or Latinx communities. The governor later said “I was not involved in the proclamation” that bears his signature. https://t.co/CXBrFWcaqf
— tbt* (@tbtnewspaper) June 12, 2019