As of this writing, Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air. Thank the holy Jesus. America’s constitutional crisis is finally over. Oh say can you see. Let freedom ring. Hallelujah. Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-koo-sa. Magnifico (oh oh oh oh).
Sorry, I got a little caught up in a fever dream there.
Yes, Disney has released a statement saying that they are going to put “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back on ABC after the show was yanked for being too mean to President Tough Guy. (The given reason was that Kimmel made remarks that were in poor taste about Charlie Kirk’s murder. He didn’t. He made fun of Trump for responding to a reporter’s question about how he was taking Kirk’s murder by bragging about the construction of the White House ballroom.)
I wish, of course, that this meant that the Trump regime was about to topple. Sadly, they are still doing many, many bad things. Too many to even keep track of.
So, yeah, it’s premature to celebrate. But this is a crack in the Trump Administration’s armor. It’s a sign of weakness and amplifies the message that Trump is not a popular president. Most people hate him. And rightly so. As horrible as things are right now, we are not totally cooked. Yet.
But I don’t want to write about Trump. I don’t want to write about anything bad right now. There is just too much bad news.
So how about some good news for a change?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot… but guess what’s making a comeback in Florida?
Measles, probably, but I’m talking about rainbows.
As you may know, Republicans hate LGBTQ+ people and, by extension, rainbows. And so the Trump Administration decided that rainbow-painted crosswalks must be eradicated. Starting with the one right by Pulse, the gay nightclub that was the site of a mass shooting in June 2016.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy defended the action in a post on X reading, “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks.” Duffy referred to the rainbow crosswalk as a “political banner.”
In reality, it was part of the Pulse Memorial which was put up by the state of Florida. Because of a mass murder. Where lots of people died. And it was horrible. And that’s the kind of thing that typically has a memorial of some type.
But this memorial was just too gay, apparently. So as Florida giveth, Florida taketh away. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was more than happy to comply.
People protested by using chalk to re-rainbow-fy the crosswalk and some of them were arrested.
But as The Advocate reported, local governments and businesses are stepping up for Team Rainbow.
Two businesses named by The Advocate include Se7enBites restaurant, which has 49 parking spaces in its lot painted to honor those killed at Pulse, and MojoMan Swimwear & Clothing, which bills itself as Orlando’s largest gay men’s clothing store, now has a giant inclusive Pride flag painted in its parking lot.
“Art has always been a form of resistance and healing,” Se7en Bites owner Trina Gregory told the Associated Press. “If they want to erase symbols of pride and acceptance, then we’ll create even more of them. This isn’t just about paint, it’s about community, visibility and love.”
Harvest, a church in Sarasota, painted a crosswalk on its campus in direct response to the elimination of the state’s rainbow crosswalks.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first crosswalk they painted over was at the Pulse Memorial,” Harvest’s Pastor Dan Minor told Patch.
In fact, the Pulse shooting was a defining moment for Minor. As Patch reports, he went to high school with Eddie Sotomayor, who was killed at Pulse.
Before the shooting, Minor said, “I was privately inclusive but publicly I had the pressure of the evangelical community. So, I wasn’t public about what I felt privately. We just weren’t out there saying the things we’re saying now.”
Minor officiated Sotomayor’s funeral even though he feared he would lose his job.
According to Patch, Minor gave a eulogy to a room full of “mostly gay men” after “a Tina Turner-inspired drag performance.”
“It was so beautiful, especially coming from an evangelical background,” Minor told Patch. “It was so beautiful and wonderful and, of course, tragic at the same time.”
It’s an important reminder that tragic things can also be beautiful and wonderful. And we are living in tragic times, no doubt about that. But, like those pushing back against hate in Florida, we have to paint our rainbows where and when we can. Tragedy, unfortunately, will always find us. Beauty and wonder we have to consciously seek out on our own.
Keep seeking.
