Ron DeSantis won’t even talk to Pete Buttigieg about Florida’s transportation projects

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has built his entire persona around being “anti-woke” and particularly anti-LGBTQ+, signing numerous attacks on LGBTQ+ equality into law during his tenure.

Now out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says that DeSantis won’t even talk to him about transportation projects in Florida. He said that he has been calling DeSantis but never talked directly with him.

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“I’ve never heard from this governor, and it’s not because I’ve never called him,” Buttigieg told TIME. “We’ve never spoken. What I will say is we’ve done a lot of good work with the Florida Department of Transportation.”

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“We try to work around and through all that to just get stuff done,” he continued. “A huge amount of energy and effort is being wasted in these dumb fights. And that’s really unfortunate. It’s policy waste in order to achieve political benefit or perceived political benefit.”

“He’s more worried about Bud Light or Disney or whatever,” Buttigieg added, referring to DeSantis’s obsession with culture war issues and his acrimonious war with Disney because the corporation issued a statement opposing his Don’t Say Gay bill.

One of the issues that they should be talking about is the Brightline project, a rail line that would connect Miami and Tampa with a station in Orlando, near Disney World. Last year Disney rejected a train station at Disney Springs on Disney’s property and said it would no longer donate the land for the train station. The project could benefit from federal transportation dollars as it has been diverted to go to the Orange County Convention Center, TIME explained.

While the Brightline project has received $31 million in Department of Transportation funds throughout the Biden administration, it’s potentially losing out on more federal funding.

During the interview, Buttigieg also called out Republicans for their attacks on LGBTQ+ rights these past few years, particularly when it comes to trans youth.

“The situation of an upper-middle-class, married white gay dude is not the same as a trans kid in Texas, or any number of LGBTQ people of color trying to survive right now,” said Buttigieg. “They see political value in this. I see not only distraction, but a very real harm that’s being done. And that’s gonna persist until they figure out that it is not rewarding politically for them.”

When asked whether marriage equality is safe under the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, he said no.

“I don’t think anything is safe. I mean, Roe fell and that was the law of the land for longer than I’ve been alive. Nothing is safe. Especially right now.”

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