The Florida governor's office created two versions of a June proclamation marking the three-year remembrance of the Pulse night club shooting, according to documents obtained this week by the Tampa Bay Times. One proclamation acknowledged the tragedy's LGBTQ and Hispanic victims. The other did not.
Gov. Ron DeSantis ultimately signed the one that did not.
DeSantis later said that was a mistake and he issued a corrected proclamation recognizing the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities. His office blamed staff error. But the previously unreported documents indicate that someone inside the governor's office had created two drastically different options for DeSantis to send out.
The one draft version declared: "The State of Florida will not tolerate hatred towards the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities and we will stand boldly with Orlando and the Central Florida community against terrorism and hate."
That one initially did not make it out of the governor's office. Instead, DeSantis signed one that omitted the reference to the the victims' sexuality and ethnicity. It also removed the word "hate."
That proclamation stated: "The entire state of Florida has come together to stand boldly with Orlando and the Central Florida community against terrorism."
The records don't make clear why two versions were written or who authored them. DeSantis spokeswoman Helen Aguirre Ferré blamed confusion, saying "the process was circumvented by a staff member" who shouldn't have been involved. A month before the proclamation was issued, emails showed uncertainty between the governor's advance team and his legal staff over who would oversee the remembrance.
