4 September 26 - OctOber 2, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI ENTER THE TROLLS MIAMI HEAT DECRIES “HATEFUL SPEECH” TOWARD HAITIAN COMMUNITY. BY ALEX DELUCA O n Monday, as former president Donald Trump and his cam- paign continued to amplify baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants are abducting pets and eating them in Ohio, the Miami Heat is- sued a statement defending the Haitian com- munity amid the racist misinformation. “The Miami Heat staff, like Miami itself, is a diverse and brilliant mix of vibrant cultures, including many members of our Haitian com- munity,” the basketball team wrote in a state- ment shared on social media. “The false narrative surrounding them is hurtful and of- fensive and has sadly made innocent people targets of hateful speech and physical threats.” It continued, “Our Haitian employees, fans, and friends deserve better. Ansanm nou kanpé fò,” closing with a Creole phrase that means “Together we stand strong.” Trump amplified the widely debunked claims about Haitians during his September 10 televised debate against Vice President Ka- mala Harris. Conservative talking heads and Republi- can lawmakers — including Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — have since repeated the baseless assertion that im- migrants living in Springfield, Ohio, are eat- ing their neighbors’ pets. After the Heat shared its statement on Ins- tagram and other social media platforms, countless users chimed in to thank the orga- nization for taking a stance on the issue. “Proud Haitian raised in Miami here!! I love the solidarity so much THANK YOU”, one per- son commented on the team’s Instagram post. “Thank you for standing with us ,” another wrote. Offered another “MESI AMPIL ,” using a Haitian-Creole phrase that translates as “thank you.” While many praised the Heat for speaking up, others were less receptive. “Stick to basketball,” one person com- mented. “Here we go,” another wrote, “the Miami Heat going woke again.” “Thought this was a basketball team, not a political campaign,” a third made it known. The bigoted responses led a local Reddit user to start a thread whose headline pretty much said it all: “Miami Heat Posts in Soli- darity With Haitian Community, Usual Sus- pects in the Comments.” South Florida is home to one of the largest Haitian diasporas in the United States, with the state’s Haitian-American community es- timated at roughly 500,000. In the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Haitians migrated to Miami and settled in the areas then known as Lemon City and Little River. In 2016, the City of Miami Commission voted to dub the area Little Haiti, officially adopting the name many had long been using. New Times contacted the Heat front office for comment and will update this story if and when they get back to us. | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS “Stick to basketball and winning a championship. We worried about the wrong things here.” Screenshot via @miamiheat/Instagram ▼ WILTON MANORS CHILLING EFFECT GAY PARENTING GROUP MAY PULL FLORIDA CONFERENCE OWING TO ANTI-LGBTQ HATE. BY ALEX DELUCA A n organization that helps gay men be- come fathers through surrogacy is re- thinking its future in Florida after receiving a flood of anti-LGBTQ hate. Back in 2017, the international nonprofit Men Having Babies (MHB) chose the Fort Lauderdale area to host one of its eight international gay parenting conferences. The group has since held six of its annual conferences in the state. But while gearing up for its annual Florida Surrogacy Conference & Expo, scheduled for Oc- tober 4–5 at the Pride Center at Equality Park in Wilton Manors, MHB says it received a deluge of hateful messages on its social media — prompt- ing it to consider pulling its event from the state for good. Screenshots shared with New Times show dozens of comments under a Facebook post that advertised the two-day conference and de- picted a gay couple with their son, including “U can all die,” “No momma, no family!!!” and “Someone call child services,” as well as others equating LGBTQ people to “groomers” and “pe- dophiles.” “We’ve heard our share of hate speech and intolerance,” MHB executive director Poole- Dayan tells New Times. “It’s just we feel and have multiple indications that there’s a chilling effect.” Adds Poole-Dayan, “We see it in the reduc- tion in registration numbers. We see it in the fact that fewer people from outside of the state are choosing to come to Florida for this. Even people in Florida are wondering whether there’s a future for them here if they start a family, and that’s what concerns us most.” While Miami and South Florida were once considered a haven for the gay community, that changed with the Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis administration’s legislative crusade against LG- BTQ people, including the state’s passage of bills such as the Parental Rights in Education law, AKA “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as well as its recent quiet removal of pages dedicated to LGBTQ travel from the official state travel site. Last year, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization and several civil rights groups issued a travel advisory about Florida that warned poli- cies championed by DeSantis and state lawmak- ers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.” Poole-Dayan says people urged MHB to boy- cott Florida, but the group refused. “It didn’t make sense for us to abandon prospec- tive gay parents in Florida at the worst of times,” he ex- plains. Now, however, the nonprofit is re- thinking its place in Florida — particu- larly after seeing a dip in registration numbers for the upcoming Fort Lauderdale conference, Poole-Dayan says. He says the conference saw 10 percent lower attendance last year compared to two years ago. It’s currently on track to welcome roughly 30 percent fewer attendees this year. “We don’t usually shy away from challenges. I mean, we are here to change things that are not as positive now,” Poole-Dayan says. “But it is only if we know we can reach people. And if peo- ple don’t show up, how can we help?” According to its website, MHB annually facilitates more than $1 million worth of financial support via discounted and free services as well as legal service providers for gay prospective parents. The group travels across the globe each year to share resources and other guidance with gay men looking to become parents via surrogacy. It held conferences this year in Atlanta, Berlin, Chi- cago, and New York, with another scheduled for Belgium in November. Poole-Dayan emphasizes that MHB exists to help prospective fathers who cannot otherwise afford to start a family. “The unfortunate outcome of this would be not just that people in Florida are going to be disad- vantaged, it’s that people who are, to begin with, more disadvantaged are going to be the most dis- advantaged,” he says, “because what we’re pro- viding is help for people otherwise can’t afford it.” [email protected] “WE DON’T USUALLY SHY AWAY FROM CHALLENGES. I MEAN, WE ARE HERE TO CHANGE THINGS THAT ARE NOT AS POSITIVE NOW.”
