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For the past 24 hours, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it difficult for transgender people to get Medicaid support. gun violence and threatened the Special Olympics with a $ 27.5 million fine. on coronavirus vaccine requirements.
He dismissed protesters calling for action against armed violence telling them “no one wants to know about you” and also signed the state’s largest budget with $ 101.5 billion.
“We have a lot going on in the state of Florida,” DeSantis told a news conference Friday, highlighting the state’s strong economy, driven by high tourism figures and an infusion of federal money to ease the covid. “I’m a good place to be.”
But critics say DeSantis (R) is ignoring the state’s real problems in waging a war on “awakening” that appeals primarily to its Republican base. DeSantis is running for re-election in November and is seen by many as a possible presidential candidate in 2024.
“It’s a continuation of DeSantis’ chaos tour. He does not rule; act, ”said state Democrat Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando. “In the process, it sinks into marginalized groups of people as it continues to fuel the flames of cultural warfare.”
Eskamani was one of the protesters outside of an event with tickets in Orlando on Thursday night where DeSantis appeared with Conservative commentator Dave Rubin. DeSantis, who supports changing Florida’s gun laws to allow people to carry firearms without permission, has not commented on the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Florida has been the site of some of the most horrific mass shootings in the country. In 2016, 49 people were killed by a shooter at the Pulse nightclub, a shelter for the city’s gay community. Two years later, a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
DeSantis said last month that he would sign a “constitutional bearing” law if it was presented to him during a special session of the legislature he convened, which began on May 23rd. The massacre in Uvalde took place on May 24 and the issue of weapons did not reach. in the Florida legislature.
As DeSantis spoke on Friday, he was flanked by several Special Olympics athletes who had been told they could not compete at the organization’s event in Florida this weekend because they had not been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. The state Department of Health said it was evaluating a nearly $ 30 million fine against Special Olympics International for 5,500 alleged violations of the anti-vaccine warrant law created by DeSantis last year.
The organization initially demanded that all participants be vaccinated, a violation of Florida law, which prohibits “vaccine passports” and carries a $ 5,000 fine for each person a company or government agency requires to show proof. of vaccination.
The organization on Thursday canceled the vaccine requirement “according to the Florida Department of Health’s interpretation of Florida law,” a spokeswoman said.
The notice of the fine came nine days before the opening ceremonies of the US Special Olympics Games Orlando on June 5, according to Special Olympics spokeswoman Rebecca Simon. He said the event, which brings together 5,000 athletes from 50 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, did not see a drop in registrations due to the vaccine requirement.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo appeared next to DeSantis on Friday and said the vaccine requirement “makes no sense.” He falsely claimed that vaccines provide “basically zero protection against infection.” (Studies show that vaccines are still highly effective in preventing serious illness and death from coronavirus.)
Neither Ladapo nor DeSantis addressed the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the state. More than 76,000 people in Florida have died from covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
The DeSantis administration addressed a different health issue on Thursday, and released a report from the Florida Department of Health Care Administration concluding that Medicaid dollars should not be used. to pay attention to gender assertion for transgender people because these treatments are not safe. This conclusion contradicts the main medical advice.
The report paves the way for DeSantis to enact a rule that would prohibit Medicaid coverage for transgender people of any age.
“This is a dangerous escalation of his assault on transgender Floridians,” said Brandon Wolf, Equality Florida’s press secretary. Wolf described DeSantis’ rhetoric about transgender people as “incredibly dehumanizing,” and suggested it was a “quest to arouse the fervor of the right.”
Wolf, who is a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting, also denounced DeSantis’ veto of $ 150,000 for mental health resources for other survivors of the Pulse massacre.
“In a year when they have enough money for all sorts of things, it was such a tiny amount for these resources that when he vetoed it, it was hard not to feel personal,” Wolf said.
This budget item was one of the $ 3 billion approved by the GOP-led legislature but vetoed by DeSantis. Another article: $ 35 million for a new spring training camp for the Tampa Bay Rays. The veto came a week after the team called for action on gun safety laws following the massacre in Uvalde.
DeSantis is a baseball fan whose youth team went to the Little League World Series. He also played for Yale and the GOP baseball team when he served in Congress. Last week, his election campaign offered Ron DeSantis “Classic Baseball Cards” for $ 49.
But the Rays lost state funding for their spring training camp because, DeSantis said, it would not have been a “prudent use” of tax money.
“It is also inappropriate to subsidize the political activism of a private corporation,” he said.