In this Pride month, listen and learn about each other | Letters

Open about who we are

Rainbows and sizzle at St. Pete Pride parade | June 24

Many of us grow up thinking that the world is a simple place, and people fit easily into neat, tidy categories. It can take some time to appreciate the variety of differences among us. Science gradually opens wider windows on our understanding, and has revealed that many genetic variations can exist, but science cannot discern an individual person’s experience of themselves. This we can only try to understand by listening to each other. People who consider themselves to be part of the LGBTQ+ community have been under assault. We all know this.

As some become more open about who they are, and as many of us try to increase our own understanding, they have also encountered shocking opposition. This is not new. In the past, many people who were judged harshly in public have been pressured to go into hiding, simply in order to survive. It has become clear that many who may not fit into our limited, constricted categories of how people should be, actually need support. They need compassionate families and friends to stand by them as they face so much judgment and hostility. What they do not need are politicians sticking their noses into their private lives. And yet we have a proliferation of politicians doing just that. These are people who, for the most part, have no expertise or understanding of what it is like to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Anyone elected to office is supposed to be a public servant, and yet we are surrounded by so many who only serve themselves. But we are the ones who allow this to take place — either by voting for these people or by not bothering to vote against them. It is all done in our names, and only we can bring it to an end. We should be better than this.

Heather Malinowski, Tarpon Springs

Private decisions

Abortion still consumes politics, courts 2 years after leak | May 3

I’ve been a patient navigator for two years, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood launched its Patient Navigation program. Since then, I’ve helped countless patients who were forced to travel away from their homes to access basic health care, and I want to share some of those experiences.

Plenty of people know that abortion bans cause harm, but I don’t think enough realize the scale of impact. I’ve had patients who barely spoke English and needed me to talk them through navigating the airport. Patients traveling away from their abusers who needed to access care without being caught during a window of freedom. I’ve even guided patients on how they can get hand and foot imprints and arrange for cremation in other states for pregnancies that couldn’t be carried to term.

And this doesn’t even begin to touch on the experiences of other patients who aren’t able to travel because they can’t afford the costs or secure child care or women who are then forced to carry a pregnancy and give birth against their will regardless of the trauma it may cause. This may very well be one of the most difficult situations our patients have ever had to face, and our government has put them in a position where they can’t even make their own private health care decisions. That isn’t just dangerous. It’s flat-out cruel.

Lana’e Hernandez, St. Petersburg

Funny and sensible

A retiree’s plan to win Florida for Biden | Perspective, June 23

Ah, columnist Barry Golson. You have given me hope in this crazy state and scary election coming up. Thank you. You make so much sense and crack me up at the same time. I’m ready to try to go flip Florida.

Tamara J. McCorquodale, Weeki Wachee

Home rule and homelessness

Where homeless people sleep outside is tracked | June 26

So, the new Florida law says you can sue local governments if you’re offended by a homeless person sleeping near your space. It allows local communities to provide regulated camps for these homeless people to sleep, presumably far from said offended citizens who might sue. Furthermore, it provides funds for some mysterious board to regulate the camps. However, nowhere in the state budget do I see funds for communities to take property off their tax rolls and create the camp, nor does the Legislature provide funds to maintain sanitation, provide mental health care, etc., for the “campers.” Oh, and who pays when the offended citizens sue and win? So it seems to me like yet another flashy Gov. Ron DeSantis unfunded mandate to dictate how local communities manage their own community.

Pat Ward, St. Petersburg

Your given name

Candidates’ nicknames nixed | June 26

The only name that should appear on a ballot is that which appears on a candidate’s birth certificate. Our ballots are not social media marketing tools. By using their legal names, no one has to decide which nicknames can be used, and it will make the ballots uniform. It is irrelevant what one’s friends and family call one or what one’s trade name happens to be. We need the truthful name of the people for whom we choose to vote. Once elected, they can call themselves whatever they wish but when it is time to be reelected they should tell us who they really are.

Harley Lofton, Palm Harbor

We need teachers

Florida’s teachers need higher pay, not more politics | Editorial, June 23

Florida needs bright teachers desperately. Teachers are leaving to go to states where salaries are higher. The governor wants to give new teachers more money , but what about seasoned teachers? They need to feel valued and one of those ways is to give them a reasonable living wage. Sadly, I have seen many teachers work two jobs during the school year and work during the summer. They need the extra money to make ends meet. As a retired Florida teacher, I know that teachers are hungry for better conditions, more respect from students and parents and a living wage for all — new and seasoned teachers.

Marilyn Satinoff, Palm Harbor

A top-down model

Lawmaker called it quits and dominoes fell | June 23

It seems that the real story here is a committed Florida House representative stepping down due to the leadership and authority structure of both the Florida House and Senate having left him with no real input into anything that happens within the Legislature, and that’s simply not how government in the U.S. is meant to be set up and managed. Can we hear more about that?

Dave O’Brien, Palm Harbor

To love it, leave it

To love Florida, leave it for a bit | Column, June 23

I enjoyed reading Stephanie Hayes’ column on Florida. It was witty and truthful as well. I took a trip to Los Vegas for a week. At the end, I was ready to come home. Our state definitely has flaws like hurricanes, extreme hot weather and self-serving politicians, but I would not trade the Sunshine State for any other. Let’s enjoy the positives things and work on changing those that cause us pain.

Angela Eniola, St. Petersburg

Into the dark

Phone log privacy disputed | June 21

I lived through the efforts of Govs. Reubin Askew, Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles to bring Florida government into the sunshine. We now see our leaders scurrying back into the darkness each time the lights are turned on. If you’ve done nothing wrong, there should be nothing to fear, right?

Jim Stout, Dade City

Counting commandments

Lawsuit challenges new Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments | June 25

Does anyone know which religion’s version of the Ten Commandments is going to be used in schools? Catholics, Protestants and Jews have slight different variations. Will it be the Protestant version, which has as its 9th Commandment “Thou shalt not bear false witness”? Or the traditional Catholic version, which phrases it this way — “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”? And for Catholics, it’s the 8th commandment, not the 9th. Either way, that might be the toughest one for some politicians to follow.

Stan Kutz, Temple Terrace

Hope, then heartbreak, as first ‘spinning’ sawfish dies in Tampa Bay | June 26

I am certainly glad that we can be sure of some things, namely that the die-off of fish, who used to live only to the south of us, can’t be caused by climate change, because that can’t happen in Florida, now that our Republican governor has declared that there is no climate change in Florida. Just can’t happen here.

Stephen Phillips, St. Petersburg

The past and the future

Microchip pioneer overcame transgender discrimination | Obituaries, June 23

I wish everyone would read the obituary of Lynn Conway, and take its many obvious lessons. I had a boss once who was a complete jerk when my first child was born, who curled his lip at the news and announced to all how much he hated kids. Then, predictably, his wife had a baby, and all of the sudden he was the father of the year. In Conway’s case, she was fired by IBM in 1968 when she advised them she was transitioning, and 50 years later after her career of epic accomplishment, they apologized to her. The lesson is that as time passes, we’re supposed to wise up and be better. But the great tragedy of human nature and culture that as each generation maybe ages into a consciousness of greater understanding, wisdom and tolerance, the coming generation is still husbanding grotesque racism and bigotry in its children. Florida and many other typically Southern states are in a fever swamp state more closely tied to the Spanish Inquisition era than any awakening to scientific reality about why we are what we are. Some of the worst and poorest thinkers want to ruin millions of lives today by pouring their suffocating, blistering asphalt of religion and mediocre education over the rights, futures and deserved contentments of other Americans, with zero consideration of what future science will reveal about the injustices they’ve perpetrated against innocent people.

Steve Douglas, St. Petersburg

All the president’s advisers

Trump vs. Biden: Can we overcome our dual disbelief? | Perspective, June 23

Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker left out one of the most important points about President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump: Who are the people who will be guiding each man? Trump will have yes men, people who will do everything he wants. Biden does not require his people to bow down to him. I don’t have to overcome any “dual disbelief.” I know whom I think is best for out country.

Mary Sheppard, Riverview