The administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, America’s foremost “anti-woke warrior,” appears to have set its sights on a new goal: color displays on Florida’s bridges.
As part of DeSantis’ “Freedom Summer” initiative, Secretary of Transportation Jared W. Perdue announced earlier this month that bridges in the state will have no choice but to wear red, white and blue from Memorial Day to Labor Day to be illuminated. .
“Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis’ leadership, Florida remains the freest state in the country,” Perdue wrote on X.
The order prohibits all bridges from wearing rainbow colors for Pride Month — or other colors commemorating other occasions. As The Washington Post reported:
The Florida Department of Transportation, which oversees the state’s bridges, issued the order mandating the strict color display after the Manatee County Commission chairman objected to changing the lights in honor of Pride Month and Gun Violence Awareness Day, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
It’s unclear how lighting bridges in certain colors cement Florida’s status as the “freest in the country,” as Perdue claims, or what the term even means — it’s certainly no longer the freest state in terms of its road lighting options over bodies of water. (Ironically, “Freedom Summer” was the name of a 1964 voter registration drive in Mississippi that helped pass the Voting Rights Act.) But this new rule is an example of the lengths the DeSantis administration is willing to go. cloud his reputation as an anti-woke champion.
And while some of his efforts in that vein, like this one, seem to lean more toward posturing than anything else, not all of his policies are equally frivolous. As governor, DeSantis has imposed truly harmful restrictions on LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, education, and voting rights.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
