Atlanta-based “culture and style” New York Times reporter Tariro Mzezewa made a Florida jaunt to gauge the effectiveness – or lack thereof – of the pretentious “travel advisories” issued by various left-wing interest groups in the name of protecting LGBTQ and black Americans after Governor Ron DeSantis made a couple of moves that displeased the radical left, in “Florida Tourism Rolls On Despite Travel Advisories and Political Battles” Monday.
Mzezewa’s travel stories tend to be liberal-flavored -- she’s still signed on to the “mask forever” scaremongering of the left -- and that’s true here in story choice (her road trip seems like a media bid to keep the story alive) and text.
For months leading up to Jean Franco Rivera’s one-year wedding anniversary, he had the perfect plan to celebrate: Travel to Disney World and go on all his favorite rides with his husband, Ahmed, and brother-in-law, Luis. The three men, all gay and Latino, are originally from Puerto Rico, but now live in Texas. As the trip approached, Jean Franco, 42, said they felt somewhat concerned about traveling to a state that had passed legislation targeting L.G.B.T.Q. people in recent months.
But in the end, they went.
The Times’ roving reporter was surely disappointed no one cared or even knew of the hysterical travel advisories her paper was making so much of -- aside from the representatives of various left-wing acronyms (NAACP, LGBTQ groups) and finger-in-the-wind Florida tourism companies.
….At Disney World that day, you would never have known that the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the L.G.B.T.Q. organization Equality Florida had all recently issued warnings telling people to reconsider coming to Florida because of the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican lawmakers.
I had traveled to Florida in the wake of the N.A.A.C.P.’s advisory to see whether the warnings had any effect. The Riveras and other travelers told me that while they were against many laws recently passed in Florida, they didn’t feel that canceling their vacations would help anyone -- or change the policies….
Dissent over the overwrought, wholly political travel advisories were outnumbered by supportive statements.
While announcing his candidacy for presidency, Mr. DeSantis said that the N.A.A.C.P. advisory was “a total farce.” The travel warnings, he said, were a political stunt. “These left wing groups have been doing it for many, many years. And at the end of the day, what they’re doing is colluding with legacy media to try to manufacture a narrative,” he said.
But Brandon Wolf, the press secretary of Equality Florida said that the organization has received an increasing number of inquiries about whether it is safe for L.G.B.T.Q. travelers to go to Florida. “We felt it imperative that we answer the incoming inquiries honestly and completely,” he said.
In announcing L.U.L.A.C.’s advisory, the group’s president, Domingo Garcia, had warned that “DeSantis’ enforcement regulations will treat us like criminals, transporting a dangerous person who only wanted to visit family or enjoy Disney World.”
The NAACP, who announced the first “advisory,” was also quoted.
Unfortunately for the Times' narrative, actual Florida tourists seemed blissfully unaware of the manufactured controversy.
In many popular tourist spots, life was going on without interruption when I visited....When I stopped several shoppers exiting upscale boutiques along Park Avenue, they said that while they had heard of the dispute between Disney and Mr. DeSantis, they hadn’t heard about the travel advisories.
A totally one-sided story by Jesus Jimenez heralded the NAACP’s initial announcement in May.
