The Mount Dora City Council unanimously approved a divisive program that seeks to encourage local business owners to display opposition to hate crime stickers in a city that has zero hate crimes.
Mount Dora, located in suburban Central Florida, instituted the controversial program on Tuesday, while other issues, such as sustainable development and downtown parking woes, are greater concerns to residents.
Mount Dora calls the program the “Safe Place Initiative.” The program seeks to push every business or organization within the city limits to post a “symbol of safety” as a signal to patrons the business is safe “for the victims of LGBTQ+ crime.”
Misty Sommer, the city’s public information officer, was not able to readily provide any specific example or hate crime data to justify the program. She said the Safe Place Initiative was initiated “not to have fear, here, in Mount Dora.”
“What was expressed last night [council meeting] was more fear in the higher up political realm — some of the policy changes and so it was more to just put out not to have fear here in Mount Dora,” she told Breitbart News.
Breitbart News requested hate crime data from the Mount Dora Police Department. According to the records clerk, no hate crimes have been committed in the last ten years.
“This is being pushed by Woke leftists to further divide & indoctrinate our county,” said Anthony Sabatini, a Mount Dora business owner and Chairman of the Lake County Republican Party.
“If you don’t place a large rainbow sticker on the front door of your business stating that you are ‘safe’ & don’t harass (which is already illegal) then you are a ‘bigot’ according to the City,” he added. “Lake County has NO so-called ‘hate crimes.'”
This is “divisive Woke nonsense” that distracts from community efforts to fix real problems, he said.
The city’s police department facilitates and enforces the program under resolution No. 2023-32.
“LGBTQ+ victims will recognize that the Safe Place symbol indicates your business or organization is willing to assist them,” the city’s website reads. “Anyone who seeks solace in a Safe Place location can be assured that if they are the victim of a crime, police will promptly be called.”
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@StopXXErasure/K Yang via StoryfulSommer said the program has no end date and could expand into more versions.
“We may have two versions of the decals and maybe focus more on LGBTQ — if that’s what the business would like to — or [a] bias and hate crime take [sic] place decal that we will offer as well,” she said. “But because it is all encompassing.”
“It’s actually minimal cost to the city,” Sommer told Breitbart News. “It’s a voluntary program … but we are having it as an option to be all inclusive of all bias and hate crime.”
Some approved of the divisive program. Lake County Pride, an origination created to enhance the lives of LGBTQIA+ kids and young adults, said it hopes the city’s approval of the initiative will be implemented countywide.
“The ‘Safe Place Initiative’ introduced by Mount Dora Council member Dennis Dawson passed unanimously tonight! Great job!” the organization posted on Facebook. “Hopefully, this can be implemented countywide in the future!”
Council member Dennis Dawson, a former Wisconsin resident, gay, and a seven-year resident of Mount Dora, did not respond when Breitbart News asked for comment about why he introduced the initiative.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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