Fla. traffic sign about upcoming 5K hacked to say ‘Kill All Gays’

Orlando police investigating ‘Kill All Gays’ traffic sign - The Washington Post

Before dawn broke Wednesday, drivers on a palm tree-lined street in an Orlando suburb noticed something was wrong with a traffic sign.

The message was “immediately taken down,” and the sign was removed, Papagni said. The Orlando Police Department is investigating the incident, which prompted the city’s mayor, Buddy Dyer (D), to blast the “disgusting display” and declare Wednesday that “hate has no place in Orlando.”

“To Orlando’s LGBTQ+ residents and visitors: you are respected and valued here. And we won’t be deterred in our efforts to ensure that our city is inclusive for all,” Dyer tweeted.

This is NOT the place I call home.— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith)

It’s not Orlando, it’s not Florida.

It’s a dystopian upside down world contrived out of an era of unchecked political extremism and overt bigotry.

I refuse to be a bystander. We will not let hate win. pic.twitter.com/MgxIPgYFS0 May 18, 2023

Wednesday commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia around the world. But in the city where a gunman killed 49 people inside a popular gay bar in 2016, the day began with the hateful message.

Hours later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law four bills targeting transgender rights. The bill package — dubbed “Let Kids Be Kids”— imposes varying degrees of restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and adults; expands the ban on gender identity and sexual orientation instruction in classrooms; makes it a crime to admit minors to drag performances; and bans trans people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity in schools, prisons or public buildings.

“Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,” DeSantis said in a news release. “As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”

State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani (D), whose district includes parts of Orlando, told The Washington Post that Wednesday’s incident was a reminder that attacks and rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community “are only getting worse, and our governor is allowing this pattern to continue.”

“Nothing happens in a vacuum,” Eskamani said. “The fact that someone or some group would go as far as to hack a construction sign to send a message to ‘kill all gays’ — these are individuals who are affirmed and empowered by the policies around them, and by the elected officials around them who echo that same sentiment, whether they say it as bluntly or not.”

A spokesperson for DeSantis didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Post.

This year, over 400 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country — surpassing the number from the past four years combined, according to a Post tracker. They range from restrictions in school athletics to bans on drag shows to prohibitions on gender-affirming care — a treatment the American Academy of Pediatrics has called “medically necessary and appropriate” for some minors. Florida lawmakers have introduced at least nine anti-trans bills.

Florida has also gained national attention for other pieces of legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the DeSantis-backed Parental Rights in Education Act, nicknamed the “don’t say gay” bill by critics, sparked a bitter battle with Disney, which recently pulled the plug on a development project in Lake Nona that was valued at nearly $1 billion and that would’ve brought over 2,000 jobs, The Post reported.

On Wednesday, the state was sued by the advocacy group PEN America and book publisher Penguin Random House for its book bans affecting “disproportionately books by non-white and/or LGBTQ authors,” according to the lawsuit.

Also on Wednesday, about 50 people in congregated at Pulse nightclub — a place that was once a haven for Orlando’s LGBTQ+ community, and now a remnant of the carnage in 2016. The gathering, Eskamani said, was focused on discussions about LGBTQ+ legislation and gun violence.

“People spoke their truth and expressed their frustration with the lack of action around solving problems like gun violence because our leaders are too busy attacking LGBTQ+ people,” Eskamani said.

The “KILL ALL GAYS” message became yet another example of hate, she said.

“You would think that in a community where 49 mostly LGBTQ+ people were murdered, that we would know better and do better, and yet that is not the case whatsoever,” Eskamani said. “People need to understand that this problem is getting worse, and we need to do something about it. We can’t just pretend like it’s not here.”