Sunday's letters: DeSantis' culture war singles out vulnerable LGBTQ Floridians
Defend LGBTQ Floridians against DeSantis
The governor’s and Legislature’s relentless attacks on our innocent and vulnerable population of LGBTQ individuals – particularly trans people, with many bills filed to violate their civil rights – is reprehensible.
Approximately 4.6% – more than 1 million Floridians – identify as LGBTQ, and 16,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as trans.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Organization and 27 other leading medical groups recognize the medical necessity of treatments for gender dysphoria and endorse such treatments. Most of these groups have also explicitly rejected insurance exclusions for transgender-related care.
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With regard to parental rights, legislators will vehemently defend the right of a racist parent to ban library books about racism, but the right of a parent to seek the most appropriate medical treatment for his or her struggling transgender child should be outlawed because supposedly politicians know better than medical professionals.
When an LGBTQ person needlessly and tragically commits suicide, will the politicians openly celebrate the success of their culture war, or just offer meaningless “thoughts and prayers” to the grieving families?
Craig Obrecht, Sarasota
Extremists make hospital their new target
The misinformed posse of ultra-MAGA folks, Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty and other extremists has now shifted its attention from our schools to the jewel of Sarasota County, our beloved hospital.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital has world-class ranking and some of the very best data on COVID treatment and outcomes. And yet these extremists want to push their bizarre agenda on all of us!
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They are anti-science and anti-humanitarian. Death threats against our hardworking, diligent, compassionate hospital staff are outrageously unacceptable!
I am a nurse practitioner, and my husband is a family practice physician with training as a bioethicist. We are retired. We are so happy to have SMH as our hospital.
I was a patient at SMH last year and can testify to the excellence of the medical and nursing staff.
Those of us who appreciate evidence-based health care do not want to see our nonprofit public hospital become a profit-driven, private, exclusive hospital that cuts nursing-to-patient ratios and answers only to a corporate board.
We must not allow these fringe groups to destroy our hospital.Marsha R. and George F. Davis, Venice
Passover column overlooked key points
I am writing this letter in response to a March 20 Herald-Tribune guest column – titled “Passover reminds us to look to the future” – by Howard Simon:
Passover is the oldest holiday observed by any other group of people on Earth; it has been celebrated by the Jewish people for more than 3,500 years.
Passover is centrally about the creation of the people of Israel – tribal units once enslaved in ancient Egypt – who escaped their bondage and cruel oppression to become a nation in the Sinai desert on their way to the Land of Israel, their promised homeland.
Simon's column, however, mentioned nothing about the particulars of the Passover rites that are sacred to the Jewish people.
These rites tell us about the narrative in the Book of Exodus regarding our freedom.
They tell us about our yearning for security.
They tell us about the dream of being safe as a nation in the Land of Israel, the land of our ancient heritage.
And these rites tell us about how the Jewish people have struggled to stay alive in each generation – as Jews –throughout the history of civilization.
Instead, Simon cited a dialogue that has nothing to do with the Haggadah of Passover.
Yes, the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt, a story of a people who rose from slavery to freedom, has been used by visionaries, revolutionaries and many historical movements, refashioning the motifs of the Haggadah (Passover text) to tell us of different avenues toward freedom that still await much of humankind.
That’s all for the good, but for Simon to not mention the particular Jewish pathos of Passover was a huge error – and it was misrepresentative of the heart of the Passover story.
Our religious holidays have specific religious and timeless based themes.
They must not be rewritten to fulfill a contemporary political agenda that has little to do with the religious and historical message of any of our sacred holidays.
Rabbi Stuart Altshuler, Temple Beth Sholom, Sarasota
No reason to mock the governor
I am bewildered at Zac Anderson’s article March 22, mocking Gov. Ron DeSantis’ writing regarding his geographical upbringing (in Tampa Bay) versus his cultural upbringing (in Ohio and Pennsylvania).
More: Governor mocked for writing about cultural 'upbringing'
I, for one, was physically brought up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a blue-collar Northeastern town with a strong work ethic – and culturally brought up in a strong Christian Lebanese environment that emphasized Jesus Christ and family.
Millions of Americans were brought up the same way, and they are damn proud of it!
Pamela Pulsifer, Sarasota
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: GOP'S damaging culture war; Sarasota Memorial ranks high
