Florida Gov. DeSantis deletes LGBTQ, Hispanic communities from Pulse anniversary statement

ORLANDO, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ annual statement on the Pulse shooting anniversary released Wednesday makes no mention of the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities – the two groups most devastated by the massacre that left 49 dead.

DeSantis mentioned those communities last year and in other previous statements recognizing the shooting on June 12, 2016. Those anniversary statements called it a “a horrific act of terrorism against the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities.” In his first year in office, however, the two-term governor faced blowback when an initial statement also failed to note who was most impacted by the shooting.

The deletion this year seems in line with efforts by both the DeSantis and Trump administrations to purge what it calls “diversity, equity and inclusion” from the government, which has included similar deletions that reference sexual orientation and race from the National Park Service website and others. “Gov. DeSantis’ erasure of the LGBTQ+ and Latino communities today may say a lot about what kind of person he is, but it doesn’t change the fact that those were the communities most directly impacted at Pulse,” said Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor from Orlando who serves as spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.

The memorandum from the governor’s office ordering flags to be at half-staff on Thursday states, “Nine years ago, on June 12, 2016, a shooter claiming alliance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant committed a horrific act of terrorism at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.”

Spokespersons for the governor did not respond to a request for comment.

The governor’s memorandum from last year, and for at least the last four years, included the reference to the terrorism “against the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities.”

Wolf said in an email that DeSantis’ statement cannot rewrite what happened.

“His erasure doesn’t change the fact that families have empty seats at dinner tables, friends have missing faces at birthday parties, and our communities still bear the scars,” Wolf wrote in an email.

“Today, rather than letting the governor’s petty political cowardice write our story, I hope people choose to remember those stolen and impacted, reflect on the costs of violent hate, and recommit to honoring those we loved and lost with action.”

DeSantis’ previous removal of language citing the impact of the Pulse shooting on the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities, who made up the majority of the victims at what was Latin Night at the popular gay nightclub, led to an uproar in his first year in office in 2019.

The Tampa Bay Times reported at the time that DeSantis’ office prepared two proclamations to commemorate the 3-year anniversary of Pulse, one that mentioned the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities and one that didn’t. DeSantis initially opted for the one that didn’t, but then released a different version the next day that made reference to the community before visiting the Pulse site.

“The state of Florida will not tolerate hatred towards the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities and we will stand boldly with Orlando and the Central Florida community against terrorism and hate,” one of the drafts stated. The version that was initially released stated “the entire state of Florida has come together to stand boldly.”

DeSantis’ spokeswoman at the time, Helen Ferre, blamed the mishap on a staffer, but didn’t identify who it was.

While DeSantis had been at the forefront of opposing “critical race theory” and DEI, the new Trump administration has taken those efforts to the extreme in its removal of language about minorities.

The park service website for Stonewall National Monument, which commemorates the birth of the gay rights movement in June 1969 and led to June being declared Pride Month, removed mention of “transgender” people despite their being at the forefront of the historic confrontation with police.

A webpage on Harriet Tubman was also altered to remove mention of “the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight” and a prominent photo of Tubman.

A Donald Trump order also called for removal of Park Service language with “improper” ideology and called for visitors to report any instances of language that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.”

The Department of Defense got into hot water earlier this year when it removed a webpage about civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military career, with the letters “dei” inserted into their web address. The page was later restored.

But the DOD did announce this month it would change the name of a Navy ship bearing the name of assassinated LGBTQ politician Harvey Milk, who was a Navy vet, and also recommended renaming ships named after Tubman, African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, labor leaders Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, women’s rights suffragist Lucy Stone, and civil rights leader Medgar Evers, according to CBS News.