On the 11th of April, pro-Gaza protesters showed up in force at Valencia College. With them was a woman the college fired for writing “Free Palestine” on a bulletin board.

The woman fired for writing “Free Palestine” first on the bulletin board’s post-it notes meant for commentary, then on a blank sheet of paper that replaced the post-it notes was the keynote speaker. She chewed out the college for violating her rights and supporting genocide, then warned that the free state of Gaza would outlive Valencia College.

Displeased with the protest, the college made some kind of call to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department that brought a half dozen cars and a dozen cars. They may have been dissatisified with the Florida State Police, who sent only three apparent carloads of cops. For all the cops, protesters still outnumbered them. The Orange County deputies didn’t stay long, it seems they were not impressed with having so many of them tied up by Valencia College whining again about peaceful protesters. False police reports are not unheard of during protests.

When I was covering HLS protests in DC, there were at least two proven false police reports filed: one claimed a peaceful residential protest was an armed home invasion, the other claimed “shots fired” at a peaceful office protest.

On the evening of 6th of April, activists who have held a great many Palestine protests in Orlando did something a little different. They held an intersectional vigil remembering domestic martyrs killed by police, murdered by fascists, or driven to suicide by hate as well as those murdered by the genocidal IOF in Palestine.

On the 4th of April, the Florida Board of Medicine held yet another hearing about implementing new obstacles to gender affirming care. The agenda items were long, complex consent forms, one with something like 46 boxes to check.

The real issue was open anti-trans bias by several board members who were “hand picked,” presumably by DeSantis. Board member Patrick Hunter was singled out by name for this. Afterwards, the moderator insisted no further public comments address the character or behavior of the board members.

A number of transgender speakers emphasized that transition saved their lives, while years of “therapy” in their teens in leiu of transition proved to be absolutely worthless. The board was also reminded that for a transgender teen, being denied access to gender affirming care is as irreversable as any other decision, as a wrong-direction puberty can require major surgery to correct later.

I may be a cisqueer man myself, but I can imagine few thing worse than puberty in the wrong direction at age 13. These ghoulish board members whine about receiving “threats” at prior hearings, when it is they who are the threat to transgender kids and trans adults too.

It was also mentioned by transgender speakers that while many are fleeing Florida, some are not going anywhere. Like me as a cisqueer man, they are standing their ground, refusing to leave this “Stand Your Ground” state.

On the 4th of April, abortion rights activists held a “Yes on 4″/Bans Off Our Bodies rally in Lakeland, Florida. The rally lined the road near the Southgate shopping center.

With DeSantis’s 6 week abortion ban going into effect MAY 1 and the 15 week ban now in effect, abortion rights activists are pulling out all the stops to get enough votes to overturn them both in the November 4 referendum. This is Amendment 4, thus “Yes on 4.”

The Florida Supreme Court has unleashed two opposing decisions that make Florida into a battleground of nationwide importance on abortion: on the one hand they upheld both the 15 and 6 week bans, on the other they permitted the referendum to go to the ballot. This is about abortion access in the entire South, not just Florida as all neighboring states have bans too.

This horrific legislation will force anyone who is too far along in a pregnancy to order abortion pills or who cannot shop online to drive or ride the bus in some cases well over 1,000 miles. For some it will come down to whether New Mexico or Virginia is closer!