(Screenshot from First Coast News’ Facebook video)
After Gov. Ron DeSantis and the conservative Florida legislature declared it “Freedom Summer” in the state, essentially banning cities from lighting up bridges in Pride colors, members of an LGBTQ+ community in Jacksonville took matters into their own hands.
Seventy people lined up along the sidewalk of Jacksonville’s Main Street Bridge May 31, the day before LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and demonstrators turned on their high-powered flashlights in the various colors of the Pride flag and lit up the bridge in an arch of rainbow colors.
The public display was in direct response to Desantis’ “Freedom Summer,” which mandated that all bridges in Florida would be lit in the colors of the U.S. flag — red, white and blue — from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In previous years, many cities have lit their bridges in the Pride flag rainbow colors to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June.
“I thought it came off great,” said Jacksonville resident Matt McAllister in an interview with First Coast News.com. McAllister helped organize the lighting event that came together in 48 hours.
The community members holding the flashlights were cheered on by a big crowd watching from a distance.
McAllister added to the interview, “If this is about freedom, let’s go exercise our freedom, and that’s what is so special about what we did tonight,” he said.
First Coast News shared a video of the lit bridge on its Facebook page. You can see it here.
