Florida Gov. Ron "Pudding Fingers" DeSantis has destroyed Miami Beach's rainbow crosswalk honoring the LGBTQ+ community, sparking outrage over what critics call Florida's latest attack on inclusion and visibility.
The crosswalk, installed in 2018, had become a spot for tour guides to stop as they showed folks the joys of Miami. Designed to exacting Federal standards, the crosswalk boasted half as many crashes as its closest neighbor. The crosswalk "represented decades of people who endured housing discrimination, expulsion from the military, workplace discrimination, the stigma of HIV and AIDS, the fight for marriage equality, all the hard-won battles that took the LGBTQ community from being marginalized to now being a visible, celebrated part of the community," Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez said. So, DeSantis had it destroyed.
The Department of Transportation under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had ordered communities to remove the crosswalks and other street art by early last month and threatened to withhold state transportation funding for noncompliance.Critics say it's the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community by the DeSantis administration and Republican-controlled Legislature, including restrictions on gender-affirming care and Florida's measure commonly referred to as Don't Say Gay, which bans classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
DeSantis has previously explained his administration's rationale: "I think the street art got out of hand. I think it's much better that we use crosswalks and streets for their intended purpose."
ABC News
Previously:
• Ron DeSantis honors noted racist
• Ron DeSantis remembers how he learned to eat pudding in amusingly disturbing deepfake (video)
• Ron DeSantis is greeted in Iowa with a bullhorn: 'Go back to Florida, Puddingfingers!' (video)
• Trump ad targets DeSantis's gross eating habits: 'Pudding fingers'
