An abortion rights group in Florida is suing state officials for suppressing free speech, alleging in their lawsuit that the state unconstitutionally threatened television stations that were airing its ads in favor of a ballot initiative that would overturn Florida’s extreme abortion ban. Florida currently restricts all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, granting only nominal exceptions…
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It was William Shakespeare who, in Troilus and Cressida, wrote, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” And yet, in the polarized news cycle since Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States and the hurricanes have kept coming, we’ve heard a tale not of shared humanity, but of ruin, discord, and political polarization. Hundreds are dead from that storm — the deadliest to…
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Attempts to censor books in the state of Florida, which has seen one of the highest rates of attempted book bans in the country over the past few years, have gone down drastically, the American Library Association (ALA) recently reported. The reason why challenges to book titles have decreased is not readily known. And the ALA says resistance to book bans is still needed.
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Emily Friend decided to paint the nursery a delicate green. She had originally settled on purple — gentle and welcoming, a color she hoped would make her baby feel at home. But Friend, who lives between Arcadia and Port Charlotte, in Southwest Florida, couldn’t find room furnishings to match the hue. So she and her boyfriend decided on a delicate green that felt joyful, perfect even if it wasn’t…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
At least two Florida broadcast stations were sent cease and desist letters on Oct. 3, 2024, by the state’s Department of Health after airing a campaign ad to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban.
The letters to WFLA-TV in Tampa and WCJB-TV in Gainesville threatened to bring criminal charges for “sanitary nuisance” against the outlets for airing an ad entitled “Caroline” that encouraged voters to support an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, according to Florida Politics. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that stations in Sarasota and Panama City were also targeted. The ad was being run across the state, and is believed to have been on more than 50 stations.
The letter to WFLA-TV, which was first reported by investigative journalist Jason Garcia, read: “While your company enjoys the right to broadcast political advertisements under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, section 4 of the Florida Constitution, that right does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisement which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida.”
According to the letter, maintaining a sanitary nuisance is a second-degree misdemeanor. As such, it would carry a maximum of 60 days in prison, up to a $500 fine or both.
Upon hearing of the letters, attorneys representing Floridians Protecting Freedom — which sponsored the abortion rights amendment — wrote to WCJB-TV on Oct. 4 to insist that the ads continue running.
“This is not simply an instance where your station has received a baseless cease-and-desist letter in the context of a heated political campaign,” the letter read. “This is not just an unfounded request, it is unconstitutional state action. The Letter is a textbook example of government coercion that violates the First Amendment.”
Jessica Rosenworcel, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, decried the letters and said that the stations should not be intimidated for airing political ads.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, condemned the letters in a statement, calling them the latest effort from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to “censor free speech and punish dissent.”
“A governor who is confident in his policies and secure in his leadership would welcome debate and correct statements he believes are misleading rather than trying to weaponize trash disposal laws against the free press,” wrote Director of Advocacy Seth Stern. “But DeSantis is not that governor. His administration’s conduct would be silly if it weren’t such a transparent bully tactic.”
The Florida Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment. According to The Washington Post, both broadcast stations were continuing to air the ads as of Oct. 9.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
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At least two Florida broadcast stations were sent cease and desist letters on Oct. 3, 2024, by the state’s Department of Health after airing a campaign ad to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban.
The letters to WFLA-TV in Tampa and WCJB-TV in Gainesville threatened to bring criminal charges for “sanitary nuisance” against the outlets for airing an ad entitled “Caroline” that encouraged voters to support an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, according to Florida Politics. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that stations in Sarasota and Panama City were also targeted. The ad was being run across the state, and is believed to have been on more than 50 stations.
The letter to WFLA-TV, which was first reported by investigative journalist Jason Garcia, read: “While your company enjoys the right to broadcast political advertisements under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, section 4 of the Florida Constitution, that right does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisement which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida.”
According to the letter, maintaining a sanitary nuisance is a second-degree misdemeanor. As such, it would carry a maximum of 60 days in prison, up to a $500 fine or both.
Upon hearing of the letters, attorneys representing Floridians Protecting Freedom — which sponsored the abortion rights amendment — wrote to WCJB-TV on Oct. 4 to insist that the ads continue running.
“This is not simply an instance where your station has received a baseless cease-and-desist letter in the context of a heated political campaign,” the letter read. “This is not just an unfounded request, it is unconstitutional state action. The Letter is a textbook example of government coercion that violates the First Amendment.”
Jessica Rosenworcel, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, decried the letters and said that the stations should not be intimidated for airing political ads.
“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, condemned the letters in a statement, calling them the latest effort from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to “censor free speech and punish dissent.”
“A governor who is confident in his policies and secure in his leadership would welcome debate and correct statements he believes are misleading rather than trying to weaponize trash disposal laws against the free press,” wrote Director of Advocacy Seth Stern. “But DeSantis is not that governor. His administration’s conduct would be silly if it weren’t such a transparent bully tactic.”
The Florida Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment. According to The Washington Post, both broadcast stations were continuing to air the ads as of Oct. 9.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
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As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, we speak with Manuel Ivan Guerrero, a freshman at the University of Central Florida and an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, who says young people are extremely worried about the impact of the climate crisis on their communities. “This just has me more scared for what the future’s going to look like in Florida,” he says.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
The post Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm – October 9, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
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We get a live report from downtown Gulfport, Florida, as the state braces for the impact of historic storm Milton, which is expected to make landfall at “catastrophic” strength. News director Seán Kinane of WMNF community radio describes heavy rain and significant debris remaining from Hurricane Helene, which battered the region less than two weeks ago to become the deadliest hurricane to strike the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina. Milton could surpass its damage, with a projected storm surge height of 15 feet when it comes ashore Wednesday night.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
The post Hurricane Milton re-strengthens to category 5, heads toward Florida coast – October 8, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
As Floridians raced to prepare for and escape the path of Hurricane Milton, an analysis published Monday showed that high sea-surface temperatures fueling the monstrous storm’s rapid intensification were made between 400 and 800 times more likely by the climate crisis. The research organization Climate Central noted that Milton, which is expected to make landfall in the populous Tampa Bay…
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In the hours just after Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida, James Pike sat in his truck, with his mobile home behind him. He was in the parking lot of a grocery store in Inglis, a town of 1,500 people in the state’s rural Big Bend region, waiting alongside dozens of other campers. Trucks rumbled by carrying utility linemen, search and rescue workers, and law enforcement as the displaced…
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Hurricane Helene slammed into the Florida coast on Thursday night, bringing pounding rains and “fierce, whipping winds that sounded like jet engines revving,” according to the New York Times. As it ripped through Florida and moved into Georgia, more than 2 million people lost power. While hurricanes are no stranger to the Gulf Coast, climate change has intensified their destructive impacts…
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Laura C. Morel is examining maternity homes as a part of The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship. For this article, she interviewed, among others, 48 current or former residents, employees, and volunteers from homes across Florida.
In Naples, Florida, Sunlight Home offered refuge and a fresh start for pregnant women on the brink of homelessness. It also required them to get permission before leaving the property and to download a tracking app on their phones, former residents said and its policies show.
At Hannah’s Home of South Florida, near West Palm Beach, women needed a pastor’s approval to have romantic relationships and were compelled to attend morning prayer, according to former residents, employees, and volunteers. They also had to hand over their food stamps to pay for communal groceries, a practice that two government assistance experts said most likely violates the law.
In many parts of Florida, where housing costs are soaring and lawmakers have sharply curtailed abortion access, pregnant women and teens who need a safe, stable place to live are increasingly turning to one of their few options: charity-run maternity homes.
The homes, most of which are affiliated with churches or Christian nonprofits, often help women and teens as they flee abuse, age out of foster care, or leave drug rehabilitation.
But Florida allows most homes to operate without state standards or state oversight. An examination by The New York Times and Reveal found that many homes require residents to agree to strict conditions that limit their communications, their financial decisions, and even their movements.
Homes often disclose the rules to women before they move in and sometimes post them online. Codes of conduct are common in residential programs. Still, in interviews, women who lived in some maternity homes said they had not anticipated how burdensome the rules would be.
“I felt like Sunlight Home was dehumanizing, almost like we were criminals, not single mothers,” said Kara Vanderhelm, 33, who lived at the home for about eight months until July.
At several homes, residents faced serious consequences for violating rules. In some instances, employees called police when women questioned their authority or left the property without permission. In others, women said they were expelled with little notice.
After Kristina Atwood lit incense in her bedroom at Genesis House in Melbourne one night in June 2021, she was told to wake her two children and leave immediately, she said. The home’s director, Kristen Snyder, said employees had warned Atwood that fire of any kind was not allowed. Atwood, 35, said she did not recall any warnings.
“I had nowhere else to go,” she said.
For decades, maternity homes were institutions where unmarried pregnant women could give birth in secret and put their babies up for adoption. Most shut down by the 1970s, when access to birth control had widened.
More recently, however, the homes have experienced a nationwide renaissance. The number of homes has grown by nearly 40 percent in the past two years and now surpasses 450, according to Heartbeat International, a national anti-abortion group that supports maternity housing.
Homes today typically focus on keeping mothers and babies together. Many let expectant mothers, and occasionally women with children, stay for free so they can save money and find a permanent place to live. Women often learn about them through social services providers or anti-abortion pregnancy centers and move in voluntarily.
In Florida, maternity homes that house pregnant teenagers are subject to oversight. Those that admit minors in the foster care system must obtain state licenses, which entails meeting qualification and training requirements for employees, among other standards, and allowing state inspections.
Other homes with teenagers can instead register with the nonprofit Florida Association of Christian Child Caring Agencies, an alternative for voluntary, faith-based programs that forgo government funding. The association conducts its own inspections and requires less training and formal education for employees, a review of its standards shows.
But about half of the maternity homes in Florida do not accept pregnant teenagers and can therefore develop their own standards and rules. Several of those homes are staffed by employees who lack relevant professional experience, people who worked in them said.
The Times and Reveal identified 27 total homes in Florida. The news organizations examined 17 of them by touring some facilities, reviewing published policies, examining hundreds of pages of police reports, and interviewing 48 current or former residents, employees, and volunteers.
The news organizations found that homes with mandatory religious programs and restrictions on outings and communications tended to be unregulated or registered with the religious nonprofit. Many licensed homes did not have such rules, even though state standards do not explicitly prohibit them.
Some directors of homes with strict rules said that they were necessary to maintain order and that they had limited residents’ movement to keep them away from drug users and abusive people. The Florida Association of Christian Child Caring Agencies said the restrictions in its homes were meant to “help each client break the cycles of poverty and addiction to find hope and healing in Christ.”
In a statement, Sunlight Home said residents regularly leave the property for job interviews, work, and appointments, but employees “provide some accountability to ensure their safety.”
In a separate statement, the chief executive of Hannah’s Home, Karen Hilo, said that her home’s food-stamp practices did not violate any laws and that its other rules were in place to “curtail behaviors and attitudes which can undermine individuals’ and the entire group’s success.”
Other home leaders said their programs were improving the lives of mothers and children. Some had helped residents get benefits like day care vouchers and food stamps. “We have women who go to work every day,” said Snyder, of Genesis House. “It’s not enough.”
Valerie Harkins, who oversees maternity housing for Heartbeat International, said more programs nationwide were embracing a more clinical approach by hiring social workers. “We want women to have services,” she said. “We want women to have access to help.”
Social services experts agreed that maternity homes offer vital aid. But the inconsistencies in care and oversight are troubling, said Mike Carroll, a former secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families who now oversees a network of social services programs, including a licensed, faith-based maternity home.
“It can lead to some pretty abusive situations,” Carroll said.
Rachel Hunt, 29, was six weeks pregnant, fresh out of detox, and homeless at the start of 2022. Employees at the treatment program she had just completed helped her find Hannah’s Home, which is registered with the Christian nonprofit.
At first, Hunt found Hannah’s Home charming: pale yellow with green front doors and located in a leafy, residential neighborhood in Tequesta. It could house up to eight women and their babies.
But Hunt said she felt as if she were living under a microscope. There were security cameras in the living room and entryway, a common feature at both regulated and unregulated homes.
In interviews, 10 former residents, volunteers, and employees described strict rules at Hannah’s Home. For the first month, cellphones were prohibited and visitors were not allowed. Morning prayer, art therapy, and nutrition classes were mandatory.
Jadyn Merrill, who moved in during the summer of 2022, said she quit her job at a retail store and canceled medical appointments to avoid missing the required programs. With no income, she fell behind financially, she said.
Several women also said the air-conditioning system struggled to cool the women’s bedrooms on hot summer days. The babies napped wearing only diapers, with fans trained on their cribs.
Hilo, the chief executive, said in her statement that Hannah’s Home is a voluntary program that requires a “significant commitment” from residents.
“We do not merely meet a housing need,” Hilo wrote. “We offer a comprehensive program which is available from the time a pregnant woman commits until her baby is 2 years old. Ultimately, their motivation needs to be intrinsic for the program to be successful.”
Hilo characterized the religious programming as optional. She said an air-conditioning unit was replaced four months ago.
In a statement, the Christian nonprofit said it does not oversee the care of adults who live in its registered homes. The group has denied requests for copies of its inspection reports, asserting that they are not subject to Florida open records laws. Last month, The Times filed a lawsuit against the group seeking access to the reports.
In some ways, Hunt said, Hannah’s Home changed her life for the better: She found a sense of community and stayed for months after her daughter was born in 2022. But many rules felt overly restrictive, she said. Last year, she missed several morning prayer sessions and let her mother into the home’s “private residential area,” which was not allowed. Soon after, she was advised that any further violations would lead to her removal from the program, a warning letter shows.
After returning late from an out-of-state trip this past January, Hunt and her daughter were kicked out, she said and text messages between her and multiple employees show.
Hilo said Hunt was expelled because she “consistently violated rules that are in place to ensure the safety of all residents.”
Hunt had wanted to build a life with her daughter in Florida, she said, but without Hannah’s Home, she could not afford a place to live. She and her daughter moved in with her parents in North Carolina. “I felt like a failure,” she said.
Many, though not all, unlicensed homes imposed similar restrictions as a condition of residency, policies and interviews show.
Two required sexual abstinence. Three conducted random searches of rooms and belongings. At least six mandated attendance at morning prayer, church services, Bible study, or a Christian 12-step program, activities that some former residents said felt like religious indoctrination.
One of those homes, Divine Mercy House in Jacksonville, let residents choose a church and allowed for absences. “I’m very flexible,” said the executive director, Amy Woodward. “I’m not going to force anyone to go to church when their baby is sick.”
At Divine Mercy, outings longer than 30 minutes required written notice at least 24 hours in advance and were subject to approval. Woodward said the rule was intended to ensure the safety of residents who had fled abusive relationships.
“I have really tried my absolute hardest to create an environment that is just peaceful and uplifting,” she said.
Restrictions on cellphone use were also common. Residents of the Inn Ministry in Jacksonville had to leave their phones downstairs overnight—a rule instituted to prevent disruptive conversations, the director, Judith Newberg, said. The house had a landline telephone upstairs for emergency use, she said.
Melissa Radey, a professor of social work at Florida State University who has published research on licensed maternity homes in Florida, said employees sometimes believe that such rules protect residents from traffickers and other potential threats.
“There could be some very good intentions from providers,” Radey said.
Some home leaders said they were scaling back rules. Visitation House, an unregulated home in DeLand, stopped requiring residents to turn in cellphones at night because it deterred women from staying there, said the board president, Erin Kappiris.
“We don’t want these women to come and feel like they’re going into a penal system,” she said. “It isn’t a correctional institute.”
Sunlight Home, which is registered with the Christian nonprofit and housed up to eight residents and their babies, had some of the strictest rules among the homes reviewed by The Times and Reveal. Beyond the tracking app requirement and needing permission to leave, women had to lock their phones in a safe overnight, former residents said.
“Not being able to just step outside and go for a walk was hard,” said Emily Colts-Tegg, 24, who lived at the home this year from February to July. “It did take a toll on me.”
Former residents and employees also said home leaders withheld access to donated clothing and accessories by requiring women to first earn “Sunlight coins.” The coins were awarded for meeting personal goals.
Calls and messages to the chief executive, E.B. Yarnell, were not returned. In Sunlight Home’s statement, a lawyer representing the facility, David C. Gibbs III, called it a “voluntary rehabilitative program.” He said the home requires residents to agree to its rules before they move in. The coins were required only for luxury items like purses and jewelry, he added.
“Our program provides a safe, residential space for each client to begin getting quality rest and proper nutrition and feel safe and secure to start building their lives,” Gibbs wrote. “This atmosphere assists each client in creating new nondestructive habits that can help them towards a lifestyle that will allow them to survive and thrive.”
But Jessica Behringer, 38, who moved out in April after three months there, said the rules made life unbearable. “Everyone is being controlled there,” she said.
Three other residents departed for similar reasons in the last year, they told The Times and Reveal.
Recently, a complaint about the house led to litigation. This past summer, a former director of operations, Jenna Randazzo, posted an online review urging women to avoid Sunlight Home. In the review, she wrote that the home had stopped providing mental health therapy and transportation and that Yarnell had turned the “once nurturing environment into one resembling a strict boot camp.”
This month, Yarnell sued Randazzo over that review, asserting that it was false and defamatory. In the lawsuit, Yarnell denied that she had canceled mental health and transportation services or withheld residents’ access to donated items.
Randazzo declined to comment on the suit.
In interviews, some women recalled positive experiences at unlicensed homes. One said she had been raised in a religious family and did not mind the church requirements.
Another, Alice Payne, who stayed with Brehon Family Services in Tallahassee, appreciated the help employees gave during her infant daughter’s bouts of colic in 2014. “I don’t know where I would have been without Brehon House,” she said, adding that the home did not monitor residents or enforce rigid rules.
But other women faced police visits or expulsion.
Eight homes routinely called police when residents defied rules or employees, a review of more than 500 pages of police records from the past six years found.
Calls to law enforcement are common in group homes, said Shamra Boel-Studt, an associate professor of social work at Florida State University and co-author of the maternity housing research with Radey. But she said staff with proper training and resources should be able to manage some situations, and best practice is to call police only when there is a safety risk.
Employees at Mater Filius Miami, which was licensed until 2023 but then opted for the religious registration, frequently called police, records show.
On August 26, 2021, an employee called to report that a 29-year-old resident had stopped eating, according to a police report. The employee wanted her detained under a state law that lets police temporarily commit people in a mental health crisis.
When officers arrived, employees said the woman had been “disobedient and noncompliant,” records show. Earlier that day, she had walked to a nearby Starbucks, which was not allowed at that time.
In the end, the woman was not detained. Officers advised home employees not to call police “when they had a mom that did not want to follow house rules,” records show.
Mater Filius Miami closed this year. Blanca Salas, who ran the home with her husband, Juan C. Salas, said in a phone interview that the reason was a lack of funding.
“We worked on this pro bono,” Blanca Salas said. “We did it for the love of God.”
She said the home needed the support of mental health professionals. “We weren’t prepared,” she said.
For women at other homes, failing to follow house rules had different consequences. Several homes gave women 24 hours or less to pack up and leave, according to their policies, police records, and interviews.
When Genesis House expelled Atwood after she lit incense, she initially refused to leave. After both she and staff members called police, Genesis House agreed to cover a hotel room for Atwood and her children that night, she said.
The next afternoon, she was homeless again.
Cheryl Phillips contributed reporting.
This article was reported in partnership with Big Local News at Stanford University.
These Maternity Homes Offer Sanctuary, But It Can Feel Oppressive is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.
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New guidance from the Florida Department of Health includes disinformation directed at people who are considering getting vaccinated with the new COVID-19 boosters, wrongly describing the vaccinations as untested and dangerous. In reality, the vaccinations have been tested and provide updated protection from new coronavirus variants. They have been approved for use by both the Food and Drug…
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In the summer of 2023, Reveal host Al Letson felt compelled to return home to Jacksonville, Florida. His best friend had recently passed away following a long battle with cancer, and he wanted to be close to the place where they became men together.
But when he arrived, he found a city and state he barely recognized.
In recent years, the Republican-dominated legislature has passed a slate of laws targeting minority groups. Educators could now face criminal penalties over the material they teach regarding gender and sexuality. Schools across the state have banned books about queer families, transgender youth, and Black history.
Many of these legislative changes were part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called “war on woke,” launched ahead of his failed bid for the presidency. This week on Reveal, Letson examines Black life in Florida, following a rare travel advisory by the NAACP stating that “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.”
This is an update of an episode that originally aired in January 2024.
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Florida voters who signed a petition to place a pro-choice abortion referendum on the ballot this November say they have been visited by police who are investigating claims of fraud at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, the Tampa Bay Times reported Saturday. Last year, DeSantis, a Republican, signed into a law a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. In response…
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After deflecting reporters’ questions earlier this month, former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, finally confirmed on Friday that he plans to vote against a Florida ballot measure that would end the state’s strict abortion ban. Amendment 4 would would outlaw pre-viability abortion bans in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ six-week ban is currently in effect…
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Several transgender youth and adults are being told their care will be terminated following a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals by a majority-Trump appointed panel. The court ruled that a 2023 law, which restricts transgender care at any age, can go back into effect after being permanently blocked in June 2024. The ruling, released late Monday, stated that transgender people are…
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Florida can enforce its law banning gender-affirming care for minors and restrictions on adults pending appeal of a federal court ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with Florida in allowing the state’s ban on hormone replacement therapy for minors and limits on what kind of providers can administer hormones…
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Florida can enforce its law banning gender-affirming care for minors and restrictions on adults pending appeal of a federal court ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with Florida in allowing the state’s ban on hormone replacement therapy for minors and limits on what kind of providers can administer hormones…
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On Tuesday, several anti-queer and anti-transgender candidates backed by Governor Ron DeSantis lost their school board races in Florida. The defeats included suburban districts like Sarasota, an early focal point of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ culture wars, and Pinellas County, a swing district that supported Donald Trump in 2016. Many of these candidates were associated with Moms For Liberty and…
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Thousands of Florida residents have died due to coronavirus over the past year, according to new data from the state’s Department of Health website — a figure that is significantly lower than was seen during the worst parts of the pandemic, but worryingly higher than has been recently observed. According to those figures, 3,162 Floridians died from COVID-19 over the past 12 months.
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Jennifer knew she couldn’t have a second child. She already has a 10-year-old daughter. They don’t have money to spare. Her husband works long, unpredictable hours managing a condominium and she recently lost her job. They only have one car, which her husband drives to work; how would she make it to prenatal visits? If she was pregnant, could she find a job that would give her the flexibility…
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This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
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In the past year, Florida’s health department has declined to amend gender markers on birth certificates for both transgender adults and minors. Although the agency says it is basing denials on pre-existing state statutes, transgender Floridians had previously been able to update their birth certificates for at least a decade. Now, they face an opaque process that seems designed to reject all…
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Florida just saw the hottest May ever recorded in Miami — the heat index was “off the charts” according to the Miami Herald. The water temperature at Virginia Key set record temperatures for 12 consecutive days, and in late May it was as warm as it would normally be in late July. It seems like it will be a long summer in Florida. By May 30, there were already 12 daily heat index records set in…
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Jen Perelman challenged incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz once before for Florida’s 25th congressional seat in the 2022 Democratic primary. Now, Perelman is back, and this time her staunch anti-Zionism is front and center in her campaign to unseat Wasserman Schultz, one of the most dedicated Zionists in Congress. Perelman sits down with The Marc Steiner Show for a tell-all interview, covering everything from her personal journey out of Zionism, to her plans to be a loud and proud “outlier” in Congress if elected.
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to The Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us. Two years ago in the Democratic primary, Jen Perelman ran for Congress against sitting Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s 25th congressional district. She got 30% of the vote running as a progressive on domestic issues like healthcare for all, ending corporate welfare, environmental justice, and took on the power of APAC. She ran on her experience as a former Zionist, as someone who loved and spent time in Israel, but then the oppressive nature of the occupation got to her as to many other people, and she’s running again in a very different atmosphere. After October the seventh, after that attack by Hamas, 251 people taken hostage and then the war by Israel on Gaza where over 30,000 have been killed, over 80,000 wounded, tens of thousands missing, 80% of Gaza destroyed, and a growing percentage of the Jewish world opposing this war and others as well, obviously. So once again, we talked with Jen Perelman, an attorney, an activist running for Congress in Florida’s 25th district. And welcome Jen. Good to have you here.
Jen Perelman:
Thank you so much for having me on. It’s good to talk to you again.
Marc Steiner:
So this campaign, first of all, I do a series here on Rise of the Right, and I’m doing a series here that we’re in called, Not in Our Name.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
And this is like a conjunction of the two to me in a way.
Jen Perelman:
Right.
Marc Steiner:
Because you’re running for Congress, literally in the belly of the beast.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah, I mean, it feels like that. Some days definitely worse than others, but it does. I mean, and it’s kind of interesting. Florida, we’re now considered a red state. I want people to understand that about us. We’re really not, we’re really a purple state that’s been hijacked by a bunch of red people in our state capitol, but in my district we’re blue and is this anomaly and it’s the bluest district in the state. And so we are definitely in an unusual district, and I am definitely up against one of the most corporate Congress people, established entrenched corrupt Congress people that there are. So it’s definitely an unusual environment for sure.
Marc Steiner:
So when you’re running this campaign, clearly a campaign that is against what Israel is doing in a district with a large Jewish population,-
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
With a very pro Zionist congresswoman who in some sense is popular with some people in the district.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
I’m just curious about taking that on. What is different about this campaign from the last campaign you ran and how is it different in terms of your tactics and where you see people coming from in your district?
Jen Perelman:
Okay. So there’s a lot of different variables there. First of all, when I ran the first time, even back in yeah, in 2020, I was still under the delusion that there could maybe be a two state solution. So I have even in the past few years gone further to the left on that. I don’t know that I’d call it, further correct, further to the correct on that.
Marc Steiner:
Got you. Got you. Got you.
Jen Perelman:
Right. So that’s even shifted, but our district lines literally have shifted in a way that did cut out a very significant portion of our Jewish population. That’s coincidence. That happened in 22. As a result of the census and redistricting, we naturally got redistricted and the portion of our district, I don’t know if people are familiar with South Florida where I am, but in Broward County, we still had, even though it was just a sliver of Dade County was still in our district, but it was the affluent heart of the district that went all down the coastline into Dade County. And now that is no longer there.
And so our demographics have changed. A very large majority of the Zionists that are in my district are registered Republicans and we have closed primaries, so they don’t even vote in my primary. And my district is a fairly dominant blue district. So it’s not as much of an issue as people think. And yeah, there’s definitely going to be people that go with her on that issue. There is no doubt going to be some Democrats, secular Jews even that are going to, that’s their issue is Israel and they’re going to go with her. But I am finding so much more solidarity in so many other communities right now that are very motivated and organized as a result of October 7th.
Marc Steiner:
So you think, before we get into some of the issues, I really want to talk to you about it, and your sojourn in this.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
So you think in this race at this point, you really, you have a real shot at winning this primary more than you did before?
Jen Perelman:
I do. I do for a lot of reasons, and that’s not to say that it’s still not an uphill battle.
Marc Steiner:
Right. Right.
Jen Perelman:
But I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it were possible. And everything that I do is with this clear intention of propelling my movement, this mission further and further regardless of me winning or losing that seat. So everything that I do is very mindful in my campaign of my bigger mission, and that goes well beyond what happens in this race. You see what I’m, so nothing is wasted here.
Marc Steiner:
So let’s talk a bit just for people listening to us now, your sojourn from a younger Jewish woman who went to Israel, spent time in Israel, came up in Zionist home as I did, and things began to shift. And you wrote about that I saw in Common Dreams.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
So talk a bit about that sojourn for people listening to us.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah, so when I was in Israel was, I was 16, it was in 1987 and I was there. So this was actually the summer before the first intifada. Now I realize that. At the time I had no idea about any of that but. So when I was there in 87, there were no different highways, there were no walls, there was none of that stuff existed. So there were no visible signs of an apartheid state. So there was nothing at that point in time. So when I left and came back here and years go by and I’m watching and it starts looking very differently. So now I’m somewhere early in the 2000s around, I want to say the second intifada, and I’m seeing this and I’m like, what is going on? This is not what this looks like. So I started digging into that.
At the same time, the anti BDS legislations were popping up around the country here. And then I started digging into, well, what is BDS? Why are we anti BDS? What is BDS? And so I went down that rabbit hole and realized, oh, so it’s a nonviolent Palestinian resistance movement born out of oppression, and somehow I’m supposed to be against that. And being against that means that you are violating my first amendment rights in this country to be able to boycott, divest, or sanction as I see fit. I mean, that was the transition.
And then since then, and that of course was, I want to say 2005 ish, maybe 2006, and then it just was downhill from there, and then it just went, like then I just started noticing the more and more influence of the lobby and the Israeli lobby in Congress, and it just started seeming more and more sinister. And then it just all, like it was almost like a house of cards. It just completely started unraveling. And now I’m just beyond. Now I’m so furious about it. Now I don’t even consider Israel a real place anymore.
Marc Steiner:
Wow.
Jen Perelman:
It’s like Disney World. That’s Disney World. It’s like a fake ethnicity based on stolen ethnicity from other people of a language that had to be resurrected to pretend you’re an ethnicity and it’s infuriating.
Marc Steiner:
That’s really interesting. So what do you think this takes us? I mean, when you are on the campaigns trail and you’re talking about this issue, and we’ll try to get some of the other things that you stand for as well, but when you get to this issue and you make a statement like that, I mean, what happens? What do people talk about?
Jen Perelman:
Well, okay, first of all, that statement is not something I’m going to say while having a discussion with Zionists because that gets you nowhere. That’s a statement I’m saying to you and people, I mean, I have no problem with people knowing that’s what I believe, but that’s not the proper, like but at the end of the day, there are two groups of people right now, and actually I’ll say three. Let’s say three.
Marc Steiner:
Okay.
Jen Perelman:
There’s people that have gotten it since the day one. Okay. There’s people that are possible to come around and have come around, maybe they’re not raised that Zionist, like there’s sort of more, and then there’s the people that are just never going to get it. They’re just never going to get it. And those people are what I call too far gones, and there’s no point in engaging. You know what I’m saying? Once I establish that this person is not even dealing with my same reality, meaning they do not acknowledge the Nakba, they do not acknowledge that Israel is an occupation and they don’t acknowledge that the Palestinians have a right of return. If you don’t acknowledge the existence and some other basic tenets of this, right, like if you don’t acknowledge that, then we’re not going to have any sort of productive discussion. So for the most part, people that are too far gone are not people that I bother engaging with on this topic.
Marc Steiner:
So how does that play out in terms of the race you’re running?
Jen Perelman:
Yeah. Well, down here, for the most, honestly, I have yet to really, and like I said, the majority of our rabid Zionists are Republicans. So those are not even people that when we knock on doors, we’re only knocking on doors of registered Democrats. Right. So they’re just not people that are really engaged in this race because it’s just such a blue district. So that is that, and then of the people that are just Debbie people and just support her, and that’s it, it’s basically the same people that are the two far gones in the Zionism category. So at some point you accept that you work with people that you can, and there’s a lot of people that that isn’t their primary issue. And even though they disagree with me on that issue, they would still vote for me. Those are people that are in that middle category, and that’s fine, but it is what it is.
There’s nothing I can do to change that situation. Right. I’m not going to say anything else other than what I’m saying about it. I’m not going to believe anything unless somebody brings me new, further previously unknown information. Right. So there’s nothing to do. It is what it is. So I try to be as diplomatic as possible with people when I know that it’s a sensitive subject, but at the end of the day, there’s just no tolerance for this kind of nonsense like Zionism or any other kinds of bigotry. At some point, it’s like there is just zero tolerance.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m curious what you think, two things here. The first one is this particular war happening right now in Gaza is devastating.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
And it has shifted a lot of people’s opinion. Even when I look at some polls around, especially in the Jewish community and younger Jews in particular, things are really shifting profoundly. And I wonder you think this, where it takes both Israel and Palestine in that struggle and where it takes America, what happens to us in this process this process because this has the potential to kind of explode on many levels,-
Jen Perelman:
Oh, yeah.
Marc Steiner:
Politically.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah. Well, geopolitically, this is potentially World War III disaster level nuclear problem. And I don’t say that hyperbolically. I’m saying that seriously, because all it takes is for Iran, and let me tell you something, and people need to understand this. It is by the grace of Iran that Israel still is there without being bombed. Okay. That is what I think. It is by the grace of Iran. So as soon as they stop dealing with nonsense and actually want to say, all right, to hell with it, we’re retaliating. Okay, that’s one problem because they can bomb Tel Aviv if they want to. So now we’re talking about what? Then we’ll have to have boots on the ground. The next thing you know Turkey will get involved with their land army and then forget it. This is an untenable unwinnable situation. This is not going to work, and the whole world sees it except for Israel, and that’s the problem.
So I am hopeful based on what you were just saying about the changing mindset among especially younger Jews in this country. But at the end of the day, this is one of those things where there will be a group of people, angry, bitter, disgruntled Zionists that will die at the end of their life, not having their way on this. That will happen. There will be people that will just not get their way on this. That’s how progress works. There were people that fought for segregation till they’re dying breath.
Marc Steiner:
Right.
Jen Perelman:
So there will be people that will basically die not getting their way or as we see the end of this other form of racist nationalism. So it’s the same thing, but I feel that in terms of geopolitically, the only way this is ending is with the United Nations peacekeepers on the ground, creating an actual United Palestine state from the river to the sea where everybody has equal rights. And how that happens militarily, how that happens in terms of diplomatically, I really don’t know, but I know that Israel cannot continue to exist as this. This is not a tenable situation.
Marc Steiner:
So let’s say that when we wake up on election day, primary day,-
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
And you win,-
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
How do you see what happens to you and this issue in Congress?
Jen Perelman:
I see that I am very much outcasted. I see that I am a pariah. I’m probably like the Thomas Massie of Democrats. I don’t know. I’m not going to, look, it’s like how effective, and I’ve said this all along. I’ve been saying this for years. When you’re on the outside politically from the center where I am, like when you’re, and I’ll say left because fine, left of center. Okay. So when you’re on the outside of what is the bell curve, you’re always going to sort of be pulling people in your direction. And it’s always sort of an uphill battle until the curve shifts a little bit. And so I don’t anticipate it being any different for me in a congressional position than I’m in here. But yeah, legislatively, no, I don’t think I would get elected and be able to give everybody single payer healthcare tomorrow. I don’t think that legislatively, that’s necessarily where the people that are on the outliers are ever the most effective.
I think where the outliers are most effective is using their platform to pull people to the outlier. And I guess at the end of the day, it’s just going to be chipping away at enough of that on the outside, merging with labor, trying to connect all the different coalitions that are fighting against the same oppressor. Because that’s what I feel like one of my biggest purposes is and I felt like with my podcast, is really combining different movements because if all of these movements showed up for each other, that’s our general strike. And I feel like we need to get the labor movement, the environmental movement, the abolition movement, all of these groups are fighting the same oppressor. And so I just feel like that’s one of the things I would be most effective at, is using my platform to continue to shift that Overton window and get more and more people in because it’s not going to happen by me.
Marc Steiner:
Follow up on that for a moment here before we come back to Israel, Palestine.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
I mean, because in this country right now, we’re facing a huge divide.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
And it’s a real struggle for the future of democracy in our own country and where we might go. And in all the years I’ve been a political activist and doing work in journalism as well as an organizer, the last time I saw this divide this intense and this dangerous is when I was a civil rights worker on the Eastern shore in the Mississippi, is the last time I felt this.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m curious, your analysis about what is happening in our country now, and as a potential congresswoman, where do you think we’re going and how we organize around this?
Jen Perelman:
Yeah. So what you’re talking about, this sort of growing feeling of discomfort and just malcontent, it’s very, very pervasive. I feel it all over the place. It’s not just divisive, it’s just general, just unhappiness.
Marc Steiner:
Yeah.
Jen Perelman:
But where I really feel like as frustrating as that is, it’s such a good sign. It’s such a good sign because it’s a sign that we feel, it’s a sign that we’re noticing. It’s a sign that people are waking up and not wanting to take it anymore. And it’s almost like you’re watching the death throes of capital in that. And that’s I feel like one of my jobs, is to steward people from that feeling into, okay, what do we do with this next? Where can we go with this? What can we do with this? Make sure that people are punching up and not kicking down. And really just try to allocate and combine as many people to get as much progress as we can.
But yeah, no, there’s so much anger right now and it’s very valid. I am so angry right now. I have never been this angry in my whole life as I am right now. And it’s all I can do to just constantly be remembering where to aim it and how to use that energy. And unfortunately, a lot of people sort of defer to their basis selves and are very easy to sway into kicking down and punching sideways and going after others. And that’s the problem, is that desperate times allows for people like a Trump. And again, he is by no means the end of democracy to me. The fact that those are the choices already indicates we’ve reached the end of democracy.
But I think that the fact that we get people like him is because of how unhappy and how desperate people are. And they see him, he’s a snake oil salesman, but they see him as some sort of the answer and he teaches them to kick down. And that is the opposite of what we need. But there’s nobody on let’s say, for lack of a better word, the left like a Bernie at that point offering a direction otherwise. There’s nobody. The Democrats aren’t exactly saying, well, you need to punch up because they are the up.
Marc Steiner:
So I mean, the things you’re talking about, this moment are things I wrestle with all the time as well.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
I mean, because we are, I think as a nation and as a world, when I look at what’s happening in the Middle East especially, but what’s happening in our own country is that we really are on a precipice and kind of building a movement and electing certain political leaders to address that is really, I mean, it’s really critical. I mean it’s, I think about what our kids are going to inherit and where we’re going. So I’m curious what kind of, before we come back and conclude with looking at Palestine, Israel, talk about this coalition you’re trying to build in your district, which is really a pretty diverse district.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah. Well, when I talk about building coalition, I’m talking in a global sense, like what I’ve been doing for the past five years and just interconnecting so many different groups and different actions and different causes and linking people and really trying for people to see the intersectionality of all of it. But locally, I’m just a very on the ground in my community person. I mean, I knocked doors all the time. I was knocking doors even when I wasn’t running because I was canvassing to get no, I was either canvassing for my friend who’s now the mayor for that position, and I was also canvassing for a period of time to get our women’s reproductive rights on our ballot. We were able to get that on our November ballot.
So I’ve stayed very politically active and just meeting people. But the thing about me, and this is definitely a distinction between me and someone like my incumbent, is that I really do appeal to a wide range of people. Even on my podcast, I have a lot of Republicans, libertarians, I even have anarchists. I have have a wide range of people and I think that that is what we need. We need somebody that can understand different people, what they need, communicate to them in an effective manner, and stop pitting those groups against each other. And that is something that I actually do really well. And it’s something I think that often frustrates some of my comrades on the left, is that I am able to get along with the right.
And what bothers people is that in order to truly do that, you have to do it without judgment, you have to do it without judgment. So if I’m in Congress and I’m working on something, and let’s say somebody like Thomas Massie who I have great respect for, and he and I disagree on a ton of things, right, without a doubt, I disagree with him on a ton of things, but it’s like going into any sort of engagement with somebody with a holier than thou judgmental attitude will produce nothing. It’ll produce exactly the mess that we’re in right now, which is complete tribalism where they’re fighting each other, but yet they both stand for the same corporations. It’s like you’re literally watching a bird fight each wing with itself, and we’re not getting anywhere.
And so I think that what we need to do is stop worrying about labels and tribalism and just try to work to, I mean, it sounds cliche, but it really isn’t hard to work with people if you put the labels aside. If we didn’t have parties, if I could wave a magic wand and overnight there were no parties and no one knew what anyone’s team or anybody, any of that, do you know how much stuff we could get done? It would be amazing.
Marc Steiner:
Yeah, I understand. If you look at any of our neighborhoods we live in and you’re a part of a community organization, that’s what exists.
Jen Perelman:
Yeah, exactly.
Marc Steiner:
So as we close out here, coming back to where we began,-
Jen Perelman:
Yeah.
Marc Steiner:
Where do you think what’s happening now, where does it take us and how do we get out of it?
Jen Perelman:
Well, unfortunately, the problem we have, and this is something that I find to be this sort of level of Western entitlement that we have in this country, and it’s at an all time high. And I say this because people have very much conflated feeling uncomfortable with feeling unsafe. And I have a huge problem with this. And not only that, it’s impacting our constitutional rights is what we’re seeing right now left. And so where we need to be in this country is we need to be at a place where we all can feel comfortable with the discomfort. It’s very hard to deal with it. I had to go through it. You had to go through it. I’m not saying it’s easy to kind of come to terms with some of our not so pleasant past actions and deal with that, but people’s comfort level, particularly white privileged Jewish people’s level of comfort is just not something that we need to be prioritizing right now. Okay.
And I think that that’s the problem. People being unhappy with antisemitism words, people being not happy with the idea of antisemitism and the discomfort of that does not take precedence over human beings being genocided in real time. Okay. And until we sort of grasp that and the people realize that they’re going to just have to sit with their discomfort, that is how long this will keep going on. It’s really up to them. I always say the level of violence or the level of uprising in this case is determined by the oppressor, not the oppressed. So it’s really up to them at what point they want to see supporting a genocidal apartheid state or not, how far they want to go down that rabbit hole before we end up being at the basic on the other side of the whole world with Israel and just us. I’d like to not see that. I’m proposing a better situation. I think we can have a better situation, but it’s not going to be with the military industrial complex and APAC running Congress. That I know.
Marc Steiner:
And that is absolutely true. That is absolutely true. Those kind of voices of reason, like you’re talking about, are really critical in all these discussions.
Jen Perelman:
Exactly. And that’s not what we’re having. How can we have reasonable discussion when all of the people that need to have the discussion are on the payroll of the companies that are profiting from the situation that needs to be discussed? It is the most ridiculous, it’s like a candid camera situation. I don’t understand how anybody could take any of these people seriously that are getting paid by companies like Raytheon, or Boeing, or Northrop Grumman or any of that. I don’t understand. How are we even taking these people seriously?
Marc Steiner:
So you take no corporate money?
Jen Perelman:
No. First of all, and that’s so funny. And recently someone said, “Well, do you agree not to take APAC money?” And I just started cracking up and I’m like, “First of all, I have been harping about APAC and calling them out as foreign agents for at least like four years now. I don’t think they’re offering me any.”
Marc Steiner:
No, I don’t think so. No.
Jen Perelman:
Right. And nor would any corporations. Although what’s interesting though is that I kind of feel like if there were some corporation that like the anti-corporate sentiment and was happy with what I was saying and they properly treated their employees well, I don’t know. I don’t know. I might consider taking a few bucks, but it would have to be like a Ben & Jerry situation. You know what I mean? We’d have to have a meeting of the minds. But no, they’re not offering me anything. Are you kidding? I’m like, I’m calling for dollars people every day and scraping for $50 donations.
Marc Steiner:
Well, good luck in the primary, and we’ll look forward to talking to you once this is done and,-
Jen Perelman:
Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
And you clearly, I can hear from our conversation, you have a lot of depth of ideas and you’ve got a lot of fight in your heart.
Jen Perelman:
I do. I’m so angry right now. I got to tell you, I almost feel like, yeah, it would’ve been better off for people had I won in 20. Yeah, I feel so angry right now. Like hell hath no fury. You know what I mean? Than a woman used in ethnic cleansing.
Marc Steiner:
Right. Right.
Jen Perelman:
And angry about it. But can I just tell people to go to the campaign website?
Marc Steiner:
Absolutely. Go ahead.
Jen Perelman:
Okay. So guys, check out the campaign website. It’s Jen2024.org. And please, and anybody can volunteer. We need text people, phone banking people. We need all sorts of people, and we need money because I’m fighting a corporate monolith. So please help us out if you can and follow us on social media. And I appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me on.
Marc Steiner:
And Jen Perelman, thank you for joining us, and we’ll be looking towards election day and see what happens and be putting all your contact information on our site for this story. So thank you so much.
Jen Perelman:
Absolutely. Thank you.
Marc Steiner:
Once again. Thank you Jen Perelman for joining us today. And thanks to Cameron Granadino for running this program and our audio editor, Alina Nelah and the tireless Kayla Rivara for making it all work behind the scenes. And everyone here at The Real News for making the show possible. Please let me know what you thought about what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at mss@therealnews.com and I’ll write you right back. And once again, thank you Jen Perelman for being our guest. And so for the crew here, The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved, keep listening, and take care.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.