Members of Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ community and its supporters lit up the Acosta Bridge on the first Sunday in Pride Month with handheld lights. It came after DeSantis’ Transportation Department told cities across the state last year that they could only light up bridges at night with red, white and blue lights.
DeSantis has launched a number of initiatives aimed at tackling what he terms “woke” culture. In 2022, he signed the Don’t Say Gay bill, which banned “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels or in a specified manner.”
Since January, Donald Trump has also signed executive orders seeking to end transgender participation in women and girls’ sports, and a ban on transgender people from serving in the military.
Activists had been planning to light up Jacksonville’s Main Street bridge in rainbow colors, as they did last year, but the span was lifted unexpectedly as they approached.
So they moved to the Acosta Bridge, where they held up colored lights from one end to the other. The display lasted for about 20 minutes. These kinds of creative, non-violent protests are needed these days when the state and federal government is committed to demoralizing and vilifying the LGBTQ+ community. Such protests are not only appropriate, the Queer God Squad says they are divinely blessed.
