Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis omitted any reference to LGBTQ or Hispanic communities in this year’s “Pulse Remembrance Day” proclamation, marking a significant shift from his previous five annual statements. The 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando killed 49 people, most of them LGBTQ and Latino.
DeSantis’s 2024 order called the massacre “a horrific act of terrorism” but left out past language acknowledging the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities as primary victims. In prior years, he explicitly recognized them.
The omission drew sharp criticism from survivors, advocacy groups, and lawmakers. Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf, now a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said the change amounted to “erasure” and reflected “petty political cowardice.”
Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Pulse-era legislator and LGBTQ advocate, called the move a “petty slight” and accused DeSantis of prioritizing political optics over compassion.
Neither DeSantis’s office nor other Republican leaders who released similar statements responded to questions about the omission.
The move comes amid broader Trump-era and state-level efforts to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and references to LGBTQ figures in public institutions.
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