Lmst

#Protesters in #SouthFlorida to fight back against state orders to remove #RainbowCrosswalks

Walter Murphy, August 25, 2025

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — "Protesters are expected to hit the streets of South Florida Monday to fight back against state orders to remove rainbow crosswalks in places like #FortLauderdale, #MiamiBeach and #KeyWest.

"Four crosswalks in Fort Lauderdale are in the crosshairs of the Florida Department of Transportation.

"The state recently sent the city a non-compliance letter, demanding the different designs and murals be removed.

" 'It’s an attempt to try to erase the presence of anything to do with the #LGBTQCommunity,' Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.

"The state sent similar letters to Miami Beach, Key West and #DelrayBeach, citing safety issues, but Trantalis says it has nothing to do with safety.

" 'It could be the gay community this year -- who knows what’s going to be next year,' he said. 'We don’t know where they are going to keep trying to eliminate the diversity of what represents Florida.'

"Two of the crosswalks in Fort Lauderdale on the state’s list are along Breakers Avenue at Terramar and Riomar streets.

"Another one is at East Las Olas Boulevard and Almond Avenue, and the final one is at Sebastian Street along A1A.

"That will be the site of one of two demonstrations against #FDOT’s order set for Monday night.

"Both protests were organized by #EricSwanson, who is better known as #MissBouvèé.

" 'A crosswalk doesn’t define us,' Miss. Bouvèé said. 'It’s the principle of the fact (that) it symbolizes a safe space for us.'

" 'I am outraged by the State of Florida’s decision to forcefully remove #PrideCrosswalks — symbols of love, support, and unity in our communities,' Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Thursday.

" 'These vibrant installations are more than paint on pavement. They reflect the values we hold dear in Miami-Dade: respect, appreciation of fellow neighbors, and the fundamental right to live and love openly,' she said in a statement.

"The warnings to communities across Florida come after last week’s removal of a rainbow-colored crossing marking the 2016 massacre outside the #PulseNightclub in #Orlando, where 49 people were gunned down. It was painted over in the middle of the night by work crews, but has since been restored by a group of demonstrators."

"The issue has been simmering since a July 1 directive from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who gave U.S. governors 60 days to identify what he called safety improvements.

" 'Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,' Duffy said in a statement at the time.

"The Federal Highway Administration said in a statement Friday to The Associated Press that Duffy 'has made every state receiving federal dollars responsible for identifying hazards on their roads.'

:Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday amplified those comments, saying on X: 'We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.'

"A statement from FDOT said the agency has a duty 'to ensure the safety and consistency of public roadways and transportation systems.'

" 'That means ensuring our roadways are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests,' it said.

Efforts to remove the crosswalks are 'clearly an #AntiLGBTQ push on behalf of both the federal government and the copycat version from the state government,' said Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County #HumanRights Council.

" 'They’re basically blackmailing municipalities, counties and states by saying if you don’t do this, we’re going to withhold funding,' Hoch said. 'It’s absolutely ridiculous.'

"It is unclear whether other states and communities outside Florida are being ordered to remove rainbow crossings, but Florida is often the vanguard nationwide in fights over what some call the culture wars of politics. Those include battles over the removal of #LibraryBooks deemed inappropriate by #DeSantis and other Republicans.

"In Key West, state transportation officials said that if pavement markings in its historic downtown aren’t removed by Sept. 3, 'the Florida Department of Transportation will remove them by any appropriate method necessary without further notice.' In a letter to Key West’s city manager, federal authorities also threatened the 'immediate withholding' of state funds if it finds 'additional violations.'

"The Aug. 15 letter to Key West leaders said that many local communities in Florida 'immediately began undertaking actions to ensure compliance.' It did not specify how many communities have cooperated or what steps they have taken.

"Miami Beach has also been ordered to remove its rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive by the first week of September."

Source:
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2025/08/25/protesters-in-south-florida-to-fight-back-against-state-orders-to-remove-rainbow-crosswalks/

#DeSantisSucks #GBLTQIntolerance #GBLTQErasure #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FascismInTheUSA #USPol #FloridaPol #TrumpIsAFascist #TrumpIsABully

Louder for the folks in the back... GENDER IS A SPECTRUM!!! 'Nuff said!

From 2018: Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic

Biologists now think there is a larger spectrum than just binary female and male

By Claire Ainsworth & Nature magazine

"As a clinical geneticist, Paul James is accustomed to discussing some of the most delicate issues with his patients. But in early 2010, he found himself having a particularly awkward conversation about sex.

"A 46-year-old pregnant woman had visited his clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia to hear the results of an amniocentesis test to screen her baby's chromosomes for abnormalities. The baby was fine—but follow-up tests had revealed something astonishing about the mother. Her body was built of cells from two individuals, probably from twin embryos that had merged in her own mother's womb. And there was more. One set of cells carried two X chromosomes, the complement that typically makes a person female; the other had an X and a Y. Halfway through her fifth decade and pregnant with her third child, the woman learned for the first time that a large part of her body was chromosomally male. 'That's kind of science-fiction material for someone who just came in for an amniocentesis,' says James.

"Sex can be much more complicated than it at first seems. According to the simple scenario, the presence or absence of a Y chromosome is what counts: with it, you are male, and without it, you are female. But doctors have long known that some people straddle the boundary—their sex chromosomes say one thing, but their gonads (ovaries or testes) or sexual anatomy say another. Parents of children with these kinds of conditions—known as intersex conditions, or differences or disorders of sex development (#DSDs)—often face difficult decisions about whether to bring up their child as a boy or a girl. Some researchers now say that as many as 1 person in 100 has some form of DSD.

" 'When genetics is taken into consideration, the boundary between the sexes becomes even blurrier. Scientists have identified many of the genes involved in the main forms of DSD, and have uncovered variations in these genes that have subtle effects on a person's anatomical or physiological sex. What's more, new technologies in DNA sequencing and cell biology are revealing that almost everyone is, to varying degrees, a patchwork of genetically distinct cells, some with a sex that might not match that of the rest of their body. Some studies even suggest that the sex of each cell drives its behaviour, through a complicated network of molecular interactions. 'I think there's much greater diversity within male or female, and there is certainly an area of overlap where some people can't easily define themselves within the binary structure,” says John Achermann, who studies sex development and endocrinology at University College London's Institute of Child Health.

"These discoveries do not sit well in a world in which sex is still defined in binary terms. Few legal systems allow for any ambiguity in biological sex, and a person's legal rights and social status can be heavily influenced by whether their birth certificate says male or female.

" 'The main problem with a strong dichotomy is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females,' says Arthur Arnold at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies biological sex differences. 'And that's often a very difficult problem, because sex can be defined a number of ways.' "

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/fXS54

#GenderFluidity #GenderIsNotBinary #GBLTQRights #GBLTQErasure #TransgenderRights #HumanRightsAbuses #TransgenderRightsAreHumanRights

#Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban #LGBTQ+ public events, seen as a major blow to rights

By JUSTIN SPIKE
April 15, 2025

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — "Hungary’s parliament on Monday passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics call another step toward #authoritarianism by the populist government.

"The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines with 140 votes for and 21 against. It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by populist Prime Minister #ViktorOrbán.

"Ahead of the vote — the final step for the amendment — opposition politicians and other #protesters attempted to #blockade the entrance to a parliament parking garage. #Police physically removed demonstrators, who had used zip ties to bind themselves together.

"The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including that to peacefully assemble. Hungary’s contentious 'child protection' legislation prohibits the 'depiction or promotion' of #homosexuality to minors aged under 18.

"The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ communities, including the popular #PrideEvent in #Budapest that draws thousands annually."

Source:
https://apnews.com/article/hungary-pride-ban-amendment-orban-gay-rights-lgbtq-155ec12cbbde7cc6be0f96adb323de77

#HungaryPol #AntiGBLTQ #AntiGBLTQLaws #Fascism #Authoritarianism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HumanRightsViolations #GBLTQErasure
#OrbanIsPutinsPuppet #PrideParades

Marco Rubio's hunt for "#AntiChristian bias" is creeping #theocracy

In a new war on federal workers, State Department employees are told to snitch on people with #Pride flags

By Amanda Marcotte
Published April 15, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)

Excerpt: "Unsurprisingly, a deeper read of the cable shows that 'anti-Christian bias' is the cover story propped up to justify Rubio's actual assault on freedom of religion at State. He's giving Christian nationalists at the agency a tool to harass and even Rpurge people who don't share their #FarRight beliefs. The definitions of 'anti-Christian bias' throughout add up to outrage that conservative Christians are expected to treat people who believe differently with fairness and decency.

"For instance, the memo asks for reports of 'mistreatment for opposing displays of flags, banners or other paraphernalia,' specifically during Joe Biden's administration. It doesn't take a doctorate in bureaucratese to interpret this. Rubio is seeking stories where conservative Christians were told to mind their own business after objecting to a colleague putting up a #PrideFlag, a #BlackLivesMatter sign or perhaps a religious knickknack from a #NonChristian faith. This might be more comprehensible if, say, any Christians had being told they couldn't wear a cross or have a picture of Jesus on their desk. Instead, what Rubio is suggesting is that Christians have [the right to] prevent other people from having the freedom to express views and positions they dislike — and that it amounts to 'bias' if they can't control what others do or say. "

#ChristianNationalism #USPol #ChristoFascism #ChurchAndState #AntiGBLTQ #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HeritageFoundation #Project2025 #ChristianCoalition #MoralityPolice #HumanRightsViolations #GBLTQErasure #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #TrumpRegime

#GBLTQErasure

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