Marchers cheer during the Come Out With Pride Parade in downtown Orlando on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Thousands lined the streets for the yearly event supporting inclusion. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel) User Upload Caption:
Any comprehensive history of Pride Month starts with savagery and defiance — commemorating the first time the nation’s gay community openly mutinied against routine oppression and casual violence. The Stonewall Riots radiated from one small bar in Greenwich Village, which was, in the late 1960s, seen as one of the few tiny havens for LGBTQ+ Americans to live their lives with some degree of openness.
Even inside those confines, any kind of openly non-heterosexual behavior could put life and liberty at risk. That’s why gay-friendly establishments, including the Stonewall Inn, were owned or controlled by organized crime-syndicates. Yes, there was a time in American history when the Mafia did a better job of protecting individual rights than any governmental agency did.
Instead, governments across the nation served as oppressors, raiding gay-and-lesbian clubs or posing as potential sexual partners as a form of entrapment. For the most part, Florida was no different. But slowly, small bastions of liberty began to emerge. And they included Central Florida, where ex-military people were transitioning into the space program.
Pride’s beachhead in Florida
Orlando’s first gay nightclub, The Palace Club, opened the same year as the riots. When Disney’s Magic Kingdom opened its gates, the City Beautiful took on added allure as a safer — though still not safe — space for non-heterosexual Americans to love and live their lives. As documented by the LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida, a group of entrepreneurs known as the Gay and Lesbian Gang quickly established a series of nightclubs that included the iconic Parliament House. Within a decade of the Stonewall riots, Orlando saw its first Pride Picnic at Turkey Lake Park.
It still took decades to unwind Florida’s layers of hateful, oppressive laws. Every step felt hard-won: Stonewall-era law enshrined total bans on any expression of alternate sexuality. Some of those laws were not invalidated until the early 2000s, when a rapid tumble of landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings battered sexual-identity and orientation laws until they crumbled. And the ugliness never fully went away. Within the past few decades, Florida has seen cruel debates on whether LGBTQ people could adopt children, or marry.
The hearts and minds of Floridians, however, shifted much more quickly. By the turn of the century, most Sunshine State residents expressed support for civil unions and adoption rights. People flew rainbow flags and showed up for Pride demonstrations without fear.
Every step seemed to move things a little closer to a day when sexual orientation and non-gender-conformity were simply accepted as defining traits. When fear and hate were reviled and forced into the shadows, where love was welcome in the full light of day.
Florida saw the reflections of the fear and anger of the Greenwich Village riots shift to cheerful acceptance of sexuality in The Villages —- saw it as a change for the better. The surge of love and alliance after the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub helped heal hearts ripped apart by an openly acknowledged act of terrorism.
But as this Pride Month draws to a close, we must ask: How is it, in 2023, that we are sliding backward?
Back, to a day when providing gender-affirming care — or simply being transgender — could mean losing access to healthcare or even at risk of arrest and prosecution?
Back, to a time when Florida teachers are warned not to talk about sexuality with their students and innocent books that merely acknowledge the differences among families are outlawed?
Back, to a place where official government sources refer to gay people as “groomers” and suggest their mere existence puts children at risk of predatory behavior? Where the governor seems to obsessed by the mere existence of drag queens, and not in a healthy way?
This is nothing to be proud of.
So as Pride Month draws to a close, Floridians must make it clear: They are ready for this new fight to begin. They are ready to rebuke those who would force shame on people who yearned so long for the right to live in safety and with dignity.
They are ready to stand up for the right to love and be loved without fear once again — and be proud to do so.
Well the super-red and highly politicized Supreme Court is at it again, and, as is always the case, things are now worse for many average Americans than they were before.
Media coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s all-but-announced candidacy for president is already in full frenzy, and so far the script is exactly as his handlers would like it to be. The governor regularly opens up new fronts in the culture wars, sowing alarm over critical race theory, transgender rights, or border policies. In response, liberal pundits fall into the trap of accentuating the very issues DeSantis has chosen to fire up his base.
Omitted from the public debate about DeSantis’s policies is almost any discussion of his actual record of governance—what exactly he has delivered to the citizens of his state, especially those without seven-figure incomes and lush investment portfolios.
Even a cursory dip into the statistics of social and economic well-being reveals that Florida falls short in almost any measure that matters to the lives of its citizens. More than four years into the DeSantis governorship, Florida continues to languish toward the bottom of state rankings assessing the quality of health care, school funding, long-term elder care, and other areas key to a successful society.
Florida may be the place where “woke goes to die”—as DeSantis is fond of saying—but it is also where teachers’ salaries are among the lowest in the nation, unemployment benefits are stingier than in any other state, and wage theft flourishes with little interference from the DeSantis administration. In 2021, DeSantis campaigned against a successful ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage, which had been stuck at $8.65 an hour. Under DeSantis’s watch, the Sunshine State has not exactly been a workers’ paradise.
DeSantis weaponizes the cultural wars to distract attention from the core missions of his governorship, which is to starve programs geared toward bettering the lives of ordinary citizens so he can maintain low taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Florida is the ideal haven for privileged Americans who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes. It has no income tax for individuals, and its corporate tax rate of 5.5% is among the lowest in the nation. An investigation by the Orlando Sentinel in late 2019 revealed the startling fact that 99% of Florida’s companies paid no corporate income tax, abetted by tax-avoidance schemes and state officials who gave a low priority to enforcing tax laws.
This is a pattern that shows up in the statistics of many Republican-led states, which on average commit fewer dollars per-capita to health care, public education, and other crucial services compared to their blue counterparts, while making sure corporations and wealthy individuals are prioritized for tax relief. Arizona cut taxes every year between 1990 and 2019, following up with a shift to a flat tax this year that will cost its budget $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, its public-school spending ranks 48 among the 50 states.
In Florida, the state’s tax revenues come largely through sales and excise taxes, which fall hardest on the poor and middle class. A 2018 study by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Florida had the third least-equitable tax system of the 50 states. In the state’s “upside-down” tax structure, the poorest 20% of Florida families paid 12.7% of their income in taxes, while the families whose income was in the top 4% paid 4.5%, and the top 1% paid 2.3%, according to the study.
Florida taxpayers get less for their money than residents of many other states. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that studies health-care systems globally, found in its 2022 “scorecard” that Florida had the 16th worst health care among the 50 states. It’s no wonder that Florida ranks below the northern blue states in life expectancy and rates of cancer death, diabetes, fatal overdoses, teen birth rates, and infant mortality.
Largely because of DeSantis’s obstinacy, Florida is one of 10 states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, an act of political spite that has cost those states billions in federal health care dollars and cost thousands of people their lives. More than 12% of Floridians are without medical insurance, a worse record than all but four other states. Despite having the country’s highest percentage of retirees, Florida has the worst long-term care among the 50 states, according to the American Association of Retired Persons.
Public schools fare no better than health care in DeSantis’s Florida. Not only did Florida rank 49th in the country for average teacher pay in 2020, but the Education Law Center, a non-profit advocacy group based in New Jersey, found in a 2021 report that the state had the seventh-lowest per-pupil funding in the country. Education Week, which ranks states public school annually, looking beyond mere test scores, placed Florida 23rd in its 2021 report, a lackluster showing for a large and wealthy state.
It says something about the state of our political discourse that Florida’s denuded public sector was not more of an issue in last year’s gubernatorial campaign. In endorsing DeSantis’s Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, the Tampa Bay Times spent so many column inches on the incumbent’s demagoguery, vindictiveness, and authoritarian tendencies that it never even got to the minutiae of his governance. “No matter what you think about the state of the Florida economy or its schools or its future…,” the paper wrote, “the choice really is this simple: Do you want the state governed by a decent man or a bully?”
To be fair to the media, DeSantis and his allies manned the trenches of the culture wars so ferociously that it was all reporters could do to keep up with all the bomb throwing. How do you delve into the state’s tax policy when your governor is flying planeloads of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard or declaring war on Disney for issuing a statement in opposition to the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Law”?
But that is very much the point of wedge issues, as they have been wielded by scurrilous politicians for decades, to anger and distract voters so they won’t notice the actions of public officials that mainly benefit the wealthy and are against the public interest.
As the 2024 election draws closer, DeSantis must not be allowed to accomplish nationally what he did in his state—cloak his service to the wealthy by frightening working people with stories about transgender recruiting and “socialist” college professors. There are unmistakable signs that Americans are focused on what an activist government can do for the public good, as evidenced by Floridians’ vote to increase the minimum wage.
The failure of DeSantis to better serve the most vulnerable citizens of his state is his weak underbelly in a national campaign.
Georgia teacher Katie Rinderle read the children’s book “My Shadow is Purple” to her fifth grade students. But after one parent’s complaint, Rinderle was placed on leave and now faces termination under Georgia’s new censorship laws.
Oh how I wish I could have watched something like this as a kid. But no I would have been beaten near to death if I had tried. I did not need another reason to be beaten or raped. My dogs that love gravy I am still suffering anxiety over talking on the phone from the beatings I took just touching the wall hanging phone as a kid. This a wonderful video that shows the bigotry that the right wing fundamentalist republicans want to return the US back to. Do we really want to return to this? Please everyone watch it. After the video I will post what I wrote on the longer this is what I am reading post, but to tell the truth I can not face writing it all again. Hugs
The VERY 1st Gay TEEN was the famous MOVIE STAR Ryan Phillippe! Check out the whole story here!
*** Editor note *** It was books that gave me my escape from my life. It was books that let me leave the life of abuse, hurt, and fear I was living constantly at home, in my home. It was books that let me understand I was not a horrible abomination in life that was going to do horrible things and die in a gutter as my adoptive parents (the ones beating and sexually abusing me and letting their kids do so) claimed long before they even knew I was gay, that I did not need to suffer in silence, (Which I did for most of my life). These books that these people are trying to ban and deny to the very kids that need them meant so much to me and other kids. Please do not let them. Look in the 1950s these people want to revert the social and country to there were no of these kinds of books, no positiverepresentatives in media, but gay, lesbian, and trans kids still existed. I am going to post a video about a old long time soap opera about gay people and the damage hate can do. Hugs.
This month has been hard. Sudden large medical bills of $1,200, the information that we were too late getting our stuff to FEMA so the rest of the $37,000 dollars in repairs we have to pay for we have to fund, the $500 dollars to get the battery replaced in the car, my stress test during which I had my blood sugar crash and during the induced chemical part of the test I couldn’t breathe that left me shaken for two day. Bad mightmares and intrusive thoughts / memories I don’t want to remember. And so much more. Ron says I may need to talk to someone again, you know therapy, but I am just not ready. As the song says
There’s got to be a morning after If we can hold on through the night We have a chance to find the sunshine Let’s keep on looking for the light
Oh, can’t you see the morning after It’s waiting right outside the storm Why don’t we cross the bridge together And find a place that’s safe and warm
The only bright spot has been talking with my wonderful brother Randy and sending him a gift. Doing that helped me a lot and is a shining light in my otherwise dark mood. I hate the news, I hate the state I live in, I hate the maga that moved in to my formerly accepting park, I hate the direction of my country. Best wishes to all. Hugs
R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts (Official Music Video)
“Everybody Hurts” from R.E.M.’s best-selling 1992 album, Automatic for the People.
I wrote this a day or two ago, but did not post it. I do that a lot with personal post, especially when I am down or really upset. Just writing about it helps me emotionally and mentally. It is why sometimes I write about my abuse, it is my way of dealing with it. The weird thing is when someone else is hurting and I can help, it helps me when I help them. You would think it would be the other way round and just add more burden, but it doesn’t. Somewhere I read a burden shared is a burden lessened. So as I post this I want to add what I found out about the song. I included the responces / comments to show the songs impact. Best wishes, and Hugs. Scottie
Simply put, R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” is designed to prevent people from taking their own lives. In 2003, co-writer Peter Buck of R.E.M. had stated that its lyrical simplicity is founded in the fact that the track is “aimed at teenagers”. However, it should be noted, in contrast, that the cover art for “Everybody Hurts” features a man who is clearly a senior citizen. Or, as Buck later stated in 2005, this song has “tended to work for people of a lot of ages”.
But apparently R.E.M. wanted young listeners in particular who may be suffering from serious depression to identify with the song and take a different route as opposed to possibly self-harm. And the argument the band uses is that “everybody hurts”. In other words, the targeted audience is not alone in their suffering. In fact being discontent with the way things are going is something that we all go through at times. So instead of doing something extreme, they should “hold on”, as in not give up on life. And one particular remedy the band espouses is for such individuals to “take comfort in (their) friends”.
Facts about “Everybody Hurts”
R.E.M.’s drummer Bill Berry is recognized as being the primary writer of this song. However, the rest of his bandmates (Mike Mills, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck) are also credited as writers. The entire band also produced the song alongside Scott Litt.
Michael Stipe, who sings this track, has stated that “people” have told him directly that it has saved lives. Indeed “Everybody Hurts” has been recognized by some organizations which encourage suicide prevention based on its message.
John Paul Jones, of rock band Led Zeppelin, wrote the song’s string arrangement.
“Everybody Hurts” fared impressively internationally. It peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the UK Singles Chart. It also broke the top 10 in Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The music video to this track was directed by Jake Scott (song of iconic movie director Ridley Scott). It went on to win MTV Video Music Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Direction, Best Editing and Breakthrough Video.
Covers of “Everybody Hurts”
On 7 February 2010, a collection of stars including Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus and Jon Bon Jovi released a joint rendition of “Everybody Hurts”. This rendition was released under the collective named Helping Haiti to collect aid to be sent to that country in light of an earthquake it experienced during that year. And R.E.M. waived the royalties they would receive from the money it generated in the name of that cause.
Music superstars P!nk and Kelly Clarkson covered “Everybody Hurts” to open the 2017 American Music Awards. They sung it in honor of America’s first responders (i.e. emergency workers) who were active during highly-publicized tragedies the nation was going through around that time.
President Donald Trump’s use of the song
“Everybody Hurts” has maintained a permanent presence in American pop culture. However, the track really caught the public’s attention in February of 2019 when US President Donald Trump used a meme created to mock his political opponents (i.e. the Democrats) which used the song. In response, R.E.M. – and particularly Mike Mills in particular – really let the President know that they didn’t support this decision and indeed are not supporters of him as a “world leader”. In fact they had Twitter remove the video on 16 February 2019, the day after it was posted, citing copyright infringement.
When did R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” come out?
“Everybody Hurts” was originally dropped as a part of R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People on 5 October 1992. Later, on 15 April 1993, it was also released by Warner Bros Records as a single. FYI, the hit single “Man on the Moon” also appears on the album Automatic for the People.
FYI, this song was later featured on multiple other albums of R.E.M., including the following:
The Automatic Box of 1993
In Time – The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 of 2009
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011 of 2011
im so sorry about that, i hope your feeling okay right now. I just want you to know your very loved and he will be happy if you are happy. I know its hard to move on but you got to let ago and accept that his gone. he might be gone in real life but he will always be with you.
thank god for song, it shows love, compassion , hope and a way out for those who are at that dark place.the singer has opened his heart to you(as do the rest of the rem band) As an amature muso My eyes were fixed on the black ricky guitar but then my heart was convicted by my selfishness and I realised that love and caring are so much more valuable. Their is a answer in this song. listen and you will hear it. My life is great now . SO GLAD I did not end it when I was hurting . you do not have carry hurt on your own. from the heart of a stranger
I have attempted suicide twice, once I came very close. I now make sure I listen to this song when my demons catch up with me. It seems strange that a song can have such a powerful effect on a persons thoughts, but so do love songs, driving songs etc. But either way, I am thankful for the song and hope it has saved lives all over the planet.
Do not support Trump as a world leader? Really ? Just what do you support a grifting never do nothing in 50 + years in Congress demented farting embarrassing American economy killing demon from the very pit of hell Biden? Yeah. I thought so. Liberals are mentally ill. I guess you write that song for yourself.
My uncle/idol was murdered and his body was discarded less than 50 metres from the view of his mother’s window, me my nana and his son among others had to wait all night till morning for forensics. No one slept, we all for some 10 hrs wept in conflicting disbelief at the reality of my uncles fully avoidable fate. He chose this song as his funeral song.
Wow nr 9 ! Jezus you didn’t get the message of this whole item and song. May you find peace and soon find out that there is just one live and one world. So stop being angry about things you can’t change and enjoy your blessings.
This was featured on the Australia TAC drink driving advert that shocked millions of Australians into not drinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8 Powerful song with a powerful video.
I really like the song and I’m thankful that they tried to prevent suicide and/or self harm with it but, being a person with suicidal tendencies I have two things to say about this son: the music extremely sad and whenever I listen to it it have the opposite effect on me, bringing all the bad memories of my past and I have to change the station. The second thing is that you can’t simply say “everybody hurts” to someone on the edge of talking their own life: depression makes you see a very narrow world and, somehow makes you not care about anyone else (if you could think about other people around you, you would never try to taking your own life). It’s a beautiful song and the intention behind it is good… but I wouldn’t suggest anyone with suicidal thoughts listening to this song in that particular moment.
Well the gun manufactures do make guns for kids now including pink guns for girls, and all the maga republicans take pictures for Christmas of their families where even the youngest children are holding guns. In Florida, you don’t need any kind of training or permit to buy and carry a gun, even to do concealed carry. This is the Clint Eastwood pretend wild west that never existed but in the mind of the hard core republicans. In the true history of the west, cities and towns had strict gun laws. Even the 1950’s TV shows had gun control in Dodge City. Again the right has rewritten history to please themselves and to create a white person fantasy. Hugs
Police in central Florida have arrested the father of a toddler who found a loaded handgun in his “Paw Patrol” backpack and fatally shot his mother while she was on a Zoom call for work.
Veondre Avery, 22, was arrested Tuesday and charged with negligent manslaughter and unsafe storage of a firearm, Altamonte Springs police said.
Investigators said the 2-year-old found the gun in the backpack on Aug. 11 and fired a single shot that hit his mother, Shamaya Lynn, in the head.
A woman who also was on the Zoom call dialed 911, reporting that she heard a noise and saw Lynn fall. The co-worker didn’t know how old Lynn was or where she lived, but meanwhile Avery also called 911, begging responders to hurry as he tried to help Lynn.
“I literally just got home and I come in the room… (and) my girlfriend who was working on the computer, she’s just laid back and there’s blood everywhere,” Avery said on the 911 call.
He told the dispatcher that Lynn wasn’t breathing, and he could not feel her heartbeat. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said another child also was in the home during the shooting.
The Seminole County State Attorney’s Office said Avery is being held without bond. Records did not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
DeFascist can indeed get the country on a different path – Here’s what Ron DeFascist has accomplished –
– LGBT students cannot discuss their personal lives with teachers or counselors, making them feel marginalized, alone, and possibly increasing their risks of suicide. Some parents with LGBT family members are moving out of the state. State ACLU currently suing to end this.
– Universities are unsure what they can or cannot teach based on the whims of literally one man. GOP prefer students to be inculcated with cheap cheerleading America First nationalism (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– History teachers can’t teach about the truth of American racism and black history because it might upset white people
– Some teachers are seeking employment in another state.
– A school principal had to resign because one of her teachers showed students a picture of Michelangelo’s David.
– A teacher is under investigation because she showed 13 year olds a Disney movie with a gay character.
– Women who discover they’re pregnant after 6 weeks, and are unable to have a child, can’t get an abortion in Florida, even though there should be retroactive abortion, Don Jr. lives there
– Property taxes and insurance costs are becoming unaffdable
– Million dollar contracts are given to DeFascist’s donors
– 87,141 people died of Covid in Florida. Less would have died had there been the slightest of protective measures taken, but DeFascist didn’t allow that.
– Hispanic farm and construction workers are not going to work out of fear of DeFascist’s draconian rules to punish undocumented workers and their bosses. Hispanic truckers are refusing to deliver to the state. Farm products are rotting while remaining unpicked.
– Students and companies who support diversity and inclusion are no longer allowed to do so.
– Trans children can no longer get medical care, use bathroom of pronouns of their choice (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– a court could temporarily remove children from their homes if they receive gender-affirming care
– LGBT people who seek medical care can be denied it if they’re unlucky enough to have a religious fanatic doctor.
– Drag queens can be arrested for appearing in drag in public where children can see them. (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– Any idiot can buy a gun without a permit, training, or with or without a criminal record.
– Disney, the state’s largest employer, is suing DeFascist because of politically motivated harassment after he started a fight with them because they don’t approve of his anti-LGBT laws. Disney cancelled a $1 billion construction project that would have brought the state over 2,000 jobs.
– More to come. White retirees probably love him because he’s getting rid of the blacks, gays, immigrants and other assorted annoyances. DeSantis calls Florida “the freest state in America.” Actually you’re free to move here, retire and die.
Climate change United Nations Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
Scottie's Playtime 
Thank you!
My friend committed suicide and I heard this song on that same day I wished he would of heard it every time I hear this song I think of him I miss him
im so sorry about that, i hope your feeling okay right now. I just want you to know your very loved and he will be happy if you are happy. I know its hard to move on but you got to let ago and accept that his gone. he might be gone in real life but he will always be with you.
Thank you! Cried
thank god for song, it shows love, compassion , hope and a way out for those who are at that dark place.the singer has opened his heart to you(as do the rest of the rem band) As an amature muso My eyes were fixed on the black ricky guitar but then my heart was convicted by my selfishness and I realised that love and caring are so much more valuable. Their is a answer in this song. listen and you will hear it. My life is great now . SO GLAD I did not end it when I was hurting . you do not have carry hurt on your own. from the heart of a stranger
I need this…
I have attempted suicide twice, once I came very close. I now make sure I listen to this song when my demons catch up with me. It seems strange that a song can have such a powerful effect on a persons thoughts, but so do love songs, driving songs etc. But either way, I am thankful for the song and hope it has saved lives all over the planet.
What friends?
I light a candle for those who I know have left
??
Do not support Trump as a world leader? Really ? Just what do you support a grifting never do nothing in 50 + years in Congress demented farting embarrassing American economy killing demon from the very pit of hell Biden? Yeah. I thought so. Liberals are mentally ill. I guess you write that song for yourself.
Wow!! So much hate and anger. May God bless you.
Like the other side doesn’t hate? Please!
My uncle/idol was murdered and his body was discarded less than 50 metres from the view of his mother’s window, me my nana and his son among others had to wait all night till morning for forensics. No one slept, we all for some 10 hrs wept in conflicting disbelief at the reality of my uncles fully avoidable fate. He chose this song as his funeral song.
Wow nr 9 ! Jezus you didn’t get the message of this whole item and song.
May you find peace and soon find out that there is just one live and one world. So stop being angry about things you can’t change and enjoy your blessings.
This was featured on the Australia TAC drink driving advert that shocked millions of Australians into not drinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8
Powerful song with a powerful video.
I really like the song and I’m thankful that they tried to prevent suicide and/or self harm with it but, being a person with suicidal tendencies I have two things to say about this son: the music extremely sad and whenever I listen to it it have the opposite effect on me, bringing all the bad memories of my past and I have to change the station. The second thing is that you can’t simply say “everybody hurts” to someone on the edge of talking their own life: depression makes you see a very narrow world and, somehow makes you not care about anyone else (if you could think about other people around you, you would never try to taking your own life). It’s a beautiful song and the intention behind it is good… but I wouldn’t suggest anyone with suicidal thoughts listening to this song in that particular moment.