Just two weeks ago, reports came out that the Orlando Magic donated $50,000 to support Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign on behalf of the entire team, using money earned by players and employees to make the donation.¹ This is completely unacceptable.

The National Basketball Players Association (the NBA players' union) called the donation "alarming."² They're absolutely right. It is alarming.

Just this year, Republicans, led by Governor DeSantis in Florida, have passed horrifying legislation that targets, attacks, and undermines the rights of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, as well as immigrants, queer people, trans and nonbinary people, and women. Florida is no longer safe for many of these communities.³

Last year, DeSantis used over $600,000 in taxpayer dollars to lure 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers onto a flight to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Families, including children, were transported across state lines under false pretenses.^5,6

DeSantis signed the "Don't Say Gay'' bill into law and extended it through 12th grade. He blocked an African American Studies AP course for students.⁷ He signed violent anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans legislation into law.⁸

And most recently, Florida's Board of Education approved new guidelines that claim that Black people benefited from slavery. It is absolutely repugnant, and unsurprisingly, when there was backlash, DeSantis doubled down and defended those guidelines.⁹

DeSantis has abandoned Floridians and focused on his own political gain at the expense of the people he vowed to govern. Under his so-called leadership, Floridians have struggled through an ongoing health care crisis, soaring rent prices, and rising costs of everyday necessities like groceries and utilities. And instead of focusing on providing relief for individuals and families, DeSantis's priority has been to pass racist, homophobic, and transphobic legislation.

There must be consequences for all of the havoc that DeSantis has caused, but instead, the Orlando Magic are fueling his hatred and bigotry and bankrolling his campaign at the expense of our most vulnerable communities.

If we come together, we can put an end to this and demand that the Orlando Magic commit to not giving DeSantis another dollar to advance his dangerous agenda.

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