It’s been a long week. Here’s a short recap of what’s been making news lately in the Florida.
Golf Courses in State Parks?
This week, Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection unveiled its “Great Outdoors Initiative,” which is being touted as “reinforcing the state’s dedication to conservation,” per a news release from the agency. And how will Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection protect the environment of the state? By building pickleball courts and golf courses. Because nothing says conservation like reshaping a natural area and displacing its wildlife. Some sites could even be developed into hotels, yet another example of Florida’s natural beauty being sold out for a few extra tourism dollars. Fortunately, the initiative is being met with resistance from lawmakers and actual conservation groups—voices that will hopefully be heeded in the coming weeks as plans for state parks are made.
Florida Ranked as “Most Fun State”
The results are in for WalletHub’s list of Most Fun States in America and Florida has landed the No. 1 spot, beating out California. Florida was credited for “leading the country when it comes to the number of restaurants, amusement parks, arcades and music festivals per capita,” but was also declared a “a great state for people who like to be outside,” so we can only assume that the ranking was decided by an actual lizard that enjoys being under a summer-long heat advisory.
The ranking also couldn’t have come at a more ironic time, as just this week, the state’s official tourism site removed its LGBTQ travel section. So whatever fun is to be had in “The Free State of Florida” clearly isn’t meant for all.
More on Removal of LGBTQ Mentions from State Tourism Site
The Florida GOP’s dream of total LGBTQ erasure took another baby step forward this week as the state’s official tourism website, visitflorida.com, entirely removed its LGBTQ travel section. This has to be one of the more baffling moves for a state where the top industry is tourism, especially for LGBTQ-friendly cities like Key West, Wilton Manors and St. Petersburg. However, it’s a move that’s in line with the GOP’s strategy of focusing entirely on culture war issues instead of, say, assisting the growing number of Floridians being priced out of their homes—a losing electoral strategy that is exhausting more and more voters.
DeSantis-backed Candidates Underwhelm in School Board Races
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to politicize school board races by having candidates disclose party affiliation isn’t going so well. This Tuesday, 11 of the 23 school board candidates backed by DeSantis lost their bids, while six will move on to runoff elections in November. It seems, for the time being at least, some school classrooms won’t end up as battlegrounds in the “war on woke.”
