VENICE, FLORIDA — The growing trend of grooming children for deviant sexual activities continued in Sarasota County on Saturday. An LGBTQ “pride” event held at a public park in Venice featured adult men dressed as women and carnival style games with sex toys – the latter directly aimed at kids.
Twitter account Libs of TikTok first broke the story on Monday, tweeting: “Words I never thought I’d write… Dildo ring toss game for kids at a pride event.” In the accompanying Substack article, the anonymous author wrote: “It started out with freedom to love whomever you wanted. ‘Love is love.’ Then it was more ‘representation’ and half naked kink parades. Now, it’s drag queen story hour in elementary schools, kid drag shows, and dildo ring toss. We’re so far down the slippery slope. Are we finally allowed to call this grooming?”
The article dove into the culprit behind the obscene activity: CAN Community Health, a non-profit based out of Sarasota that’s supposedly “committed to serving the needs of the HIV community for the last 30 years.” The story revealed that CAN also had dildos on their table at a “pride” event in Phoenix, Arizona last month, and that Sarasota County’s Principal of the Year, Dr. Covert of Pine View School, serves on CAN’s executive board.
GOP DEMANDS INVESTIGATION
Responding to the images posted online, Sarasota GOP’s Acting Chairman Jack Brill repudiated the city’s negligence and called for an investigation.
“We are demanding a full investigation be launched into this affront to our children and our community. We need to know who approved it and who oversaw such a travesty,” Brill said in a statement posted on Facebook. “This was done on Venice city property with a Venice city permit approved by staff and promoted on the Venice government website. All of this is wildly unacceptable.”
The City offered no apology, but provided a vague statement saying that it had “begun reviewing and updating its special event rules and conduct standards.”
“The City was very disappointed to learn that some of the actual event activities did not align with the approved event description,” City of Venice spokesperson Lorraine Anderson told Florida’s Voice. “The City of Venice was not informed of and did not approve the details of these activities.”
The ring toss was not the only grossly inappropriate aspect of the event, however. Another booth hung a sign that said “Pussy Power.” Meanwhile, some of the men dressed in women’s clothing who wore lingerie and high heels clung to street lamps and twerked like pole dancers.
MEDIA COVERAGE
One of the factors fueling Libs of TikTok’s meteoric rise is the press’ tendency to minimize or altogether ignore the alarming sexualization of children that marks the LGBTQ movement. A story that might have caused a newspaper editor to fall out of his chair in yesteryear has garnered meager coverage from legacy outlets in the state.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Palm Beach Post, Tampa Bay Times, Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel had not covered the news. The local Venice Gondolier thought the reaction was more noteworthy than the outrageous festivities and went with the headline: “Pride Festival criticized for sexualization.”
Newer media outlets, including The Florida Standard, have risen up to fill this gap. Florida’s Voice, a conservative publication, published a slew of exclusive videos and photographs taken by a street preacher who attended the event.
The center-left Florida Politics took an onslaught of flak on Twitter after mimicking the Gondalier’s spin with their headline: “Sarasota Republicans freak out over what’s for sale at Venice Pride,” with the subheading: “Sex toys were sold by drag queens at the event.” Publisher Peter Schorsch’s tweet sharing the story got ratioed, a common indication of disapproval on Twitter.
After the governor’s Deputy Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern and a host of others called out the questionable coverage, Schorsch defended the editorial decision, tweeting: “FWIW, we were reporting in response to a press release from the Sarasota GOP, which did not mention, um, the dildo ring toss game.”
One user quipped back: “Because it's okay with you to sell fake dicks where children are. But fake dick ring toss goes too far.”
