'You cretin!' DeSantis skewered for ripping up memorial to Pulse Nightclub victims
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a rainbow crosswalk in Orlando removed in the dead of night this week, prompting fury and outrage from residents and around the country, as the crosswalk in question was dedicated in the memory of the 49 victims of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting.
DeSantis, who in recent years has done everything in his power to crack down on public LGBTQ expression in Florida, took to X in response to a video of state Sen. Carlos Smith, a Democrat, who said, "In the middle of the night, ripped the rainbow colors off of this city sidewalk. They illegally vandalized city property."
"We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes," wrote DeSantis.
His response didn't go over very well.
"The rainbow crosswalk was APPROVED by FDOT years ago to honor the 49 + enhance pedestrian safety for those who come to pay their respects," Smith wrote in response, posting a picture of DeSantis himself meeting with survivors. "You looked survivors in the eye + promised they would never be forgotten — then betrayed them for political ambition. They won't be erased."
"It was a memorial for a mass shooting at a gay nightclub you cretin," wrote Democratic Party creative partnerships director Matt Rein.
"Who 'commandeered' the road, Governor? The crosswalk was part of the Pulse Memorial installed by @MyFDOT under a Republican governor," wrote Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics.
"A memorial to my dead brothers isn’t political," wrote Human Rights Campaign press secretary Brandon Wolf, who survived the shooting. "But your cowardly, dead-of-night erasure of it sure is."
"(The governor signed a bill in 2023 naming a state road in Central Florida 'Rush Limbaugh Way')" noted The Tributary executive editor Nate Monroe.