GOP lawmakers take aim at LGBTQ+ ‘safe places’ program in small Florida town

MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Some central Florida lawmakers mentioned they have been taking into consideration “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to forestall trade homeowners in a small town from voluntarily showing rainbow decals in their home windows indicating that they’re “safe place” for LGBTQ+ individuals who really feel threatened.

Four Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to officers in Mount Dora two weeks in the past caution that the brand new, non-compulsory city-sponsored program may put the central Florida group outdoor Orlando “in the crosshairs of potentially detrimental and absolutely unnecessary economic harm.”

The lawmakers cited boycotts of Bud Light and Target, which adopted the manufacturers’ efforts to advertise variety and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ group.

Mount Dora’s metropolis council licensed the Safe Place Initiative final month. The metropolis of 17,000 citizens is understood for its vintage stores and weekend fairs.

“The mission of the Safe Place Initiative is to provide the community with easily accessible safety information and safe places throughout the city they can turn to if they are the victims of an anti-LGBTQ+ or other hate crimes,” the town of Mount Dora mentioned on its web site.

Safe Place techniques are visual during metro Orlando — in addition to during the U.S. — together with ones backed through the Orlando Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, all in central Florida.

The council’s determination to approve the program has coincided with an uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, together with vandalism final month at two LGBTQ+ facilities in Orlando.

Democratic state lawmaker Anna Eskamani posted the Republican lawmakers’ letter on social media, pronouncing it “might be the weirdest letter I’ve ever read.”

“Let LGBTQ+ (people) exist and stop politicizing everything!” wrote Eskamani, whose district is in Orlando. “So much manufactured panic from the right. Meanwhile families can’t even afford to live in Florida. Focus on that instead.”

In May, the Humans Rights Campaign, the most important LGBTQ+ rights group in the U.S., joined different civil rights organizations in issuing a trip advisory for Florida, caution that newly handed rules and insurance policies would possibly pose dangers to minorities, immigrants and homosexual vacationers.