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!

On the 30th of March, protesters gathered at Mirror Lake in St Peterburg, FL to remember the martyrs of Gaza’s desperate fight to survive Israel’s all-out genocidal attack. US martyr Aaron Bushnell was invoked for his sacrifice that brought so much pressure down on Netanyahu and Biden.

The invocation of Aaron Bushnell was because he has been recognized by those on the ground in Gaza as a martyr for their fight.

After the uniforms had been fed to the flames, “Genocide Joe” dollar bills were next to burn. Finally, protesters marched to City Hall to lay flowers and candles for the tens of thousands of people Israel has murdered in Gaza

I got there after the veterans had tossed their uniforms into the flames. For obvious reasons that had to be a surprise.

Big Critical Mass ride even with a relocation to Lake Highland Park for the next three months. Start time 6:30PM

The intersection of FL 436 and US 92/US 17 north of Orlando has long been known as “Trump Corner” due to MAGA meatheads protesting there. On the 28th of March, pro-Palestine protesters took it over, repurposing this highly visible site at the intersection of two highways.

During the protest, a statement sent from Occupied Gaza was read out. The statement recounted horrific events in Gaza such as children in the north starving. Also in the statement was a vow to refuse to surrender and hold out for either victory or martyrdom, emphasizing that people there love their land and are refusing to yield it to the invaders.

On the 26th of March, the U$ Supreme Court held oral arguments in a case brought by pro-forced birth doctors challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.

Outside the Supreme Court, abortion rights protesters stood their ground against screaming harassment by so-called “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.” This is the group best known for stealing fetuses.

Inside, observers from many publications reported SCOTUS appears inclined to punt this one away on grounds that the original plaintiffs did not have standing to bring their case. This would leave in place the appeals court ruling overturning a trial court ruling revoking abortion pill approval.

Other healthcare professionals and even Big Pharma bosses warned that if SCOTUS permits any court to overturn any approval of any drug by FDA, that will sow chaos by making the legal status of every drug on the market difficult to predict going forward.

(Video quality not good when compressed heavily due to very complex scenes, so full 1080p video at archive.org)

On the 23ed of March, Tampa Pride’s parade took to the streets. The “ROTC” drill team with flags put on a very good performance. The name is appropriate considering the ugly times we live in and the dire threat posed by the probable results of the 2024 election and/or a Trump coup.

There is always a sour note at any parade and this was no exception. At least the cops and Mayor Jane Castor (a notorious supporter of Israeli business interests in Tampa) were soon out of the way after going first, right after the lead contingent. Also, anti-LGBTQ dog whistler Chris Nelson’s self-hating “Gays against Groomers” had their propaganda truck parked on 15th st about two blocks from the parade route. They were parked in a no-parking zone, complaints about the illegally parked truck were ignored. There was a rainbow tow truck in the parade, which would have been perfect for towing this truck to the junkyard.

While “Gays against Groomers” apparently attempted to put their stickers up on the parade route, only one was seen by the author of this report, it was quickly removed.

This was a full-featured Pride parade with a big crowd. Many parade contingents (known as Krewes like in New Orleans) featured mock pirate ships in reference to Tampa Bay’s well-known past as a haven of pirates and buccaneers. Buccaneers raided the huge galleons of the Spanish Main. These ships were loaded with gold and valuable stolen from the Indigenous population in this hemispere. The colonists (knownm as Gauchupines or “spur-wearers”) relied on slave labor to mine this gold, setting an ugly pattern that continues today with multinational mining corporations preying on nations of the Global South. Like Yemen fighting for Palestine today, the buccaneers opposing them exacted an economic price from those responsible for colonialism and genocide. Pirate ships were normally run as democracies, with the captain having no power except in battle and no special privilige except a double share of the loot.

Another Week of Action against Cop City is now underway!

Above: Video of the banner drop action, from footage by John Zangas/DC Media Group

Above: More in-depth video covering the speakers by DC Media Group

On the 22nd of March, a group of mostly Black Women got inside Atlanta’s City Hall. Once inside, they dropped a banner and chanted demands that the city drop their appeal of a so far failed court challenge to the referendum to cancel the lease on Weelaunee Forest.

Police removed the banner, but this did not stop the rest of the protest

If the referendum reaches the ballot is is considered almost certain to pass. Contractors and especially investors might start pulling out at that point, seeing no chance of finishing.