- [Man] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

Florida This week is made possible in part by support from the Tampa Bay Times.

- [Rob] Coming up next, the bill upping penalties on protesters goes to the governor.

Congressman Matt Gaetz plans to spend billions to fight those sex abuse allegations.

The state house votes to impose a transgender ban and we'll look at some of the myths surrounding the COVID vaccine, all this and more next on Florida This Week (upbeat music) - Welcome back.

The Florida Senate has passed the so-called Anti-riot Bill sending it to the governor's desk over the objections of Democrats and civil rights groups who say the measure infringes on the first amendment right to protest.

- [Reporter] Parts of the bill HB 1 that most upset Democrats would grant civil immunity to people who drive through protestors who are blocking a road, and it would prevent people arrested from rioting from bailing out of jail until their first court appearance.

And it would impose a six month mandatory sentence for battery on a police officer during a riot.

Meantime, North Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz is fighting back against those drug and sex for pay allegations against him.

Reportedly, he will spend at least six figures for TV ad buys to call the reports fake news.

And this week, Governor DeSantis filed that the Piney Point phosphate processing plant that had been gushing wastewater into Tampa Bay would be shut down permanently.

There's still the problem of what to do with the hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater still stored on the site.

Manatee County Commission has applied for a permit to inject the water deep underground but that's a controversial practice and its long-term implications are unknown.

- Many Democrats and civil rights groups have objected to House Bill 1, the anti protest bill, Mary Ellen Klas is the Capitol Bureau Chief for the Miami Herald and the Co-Bureau Chief for the Tampa Bay Times.

She's covering the legislature and she joins us now, Mary Ellen, good to see you.

- Good to be here.

- So this bill HB 1 of the Anti-riot Bill has a lot of moving parts to it and could have a big impact the next time there's a protest in Florida that turns violent.

Let's talk about some of the moving parts.

What do you think the opponents are most concerned about?

- Well, it does all kinds of, it creates kind of new causes of action for people.

If there is a protest that gets out of control and it allows people to sue local governments for damages that arise from a riot or an unlawful assembly, it would create new crimes such as mob intimidation, inciting a riot and new crimes for people who tear down a memorial and that seems to be targeted for people who are, who you know, are getting aggressive against Confederate monuments for example.

- So this has been at a high priority of the governor.

The governor says, "look, we've gotta protect people who are trapped in cars.

You have protestors surround them.

And they feel that, you know, their lives are in danger.

They gotta be able to get out of that crowd and if an injury happens, the driver really is not going to be held liable."

Is that correct?

- That's how it reads.

Now a lot of this emerged after the George Floyd protests and riots that happened in Minneapolis a year ago and the governor indicated that, you know he was also looking at what happened at the US Capitol on January 6th but the way both of those things, there were more people arrested after the George Floyd incidents and other incidents, other riots across the country or protests across the country.

And so it does appear as if maybe that was the impetus of this more than what happened in DC.

- What are the groups that are oppose to it saying about lawsuits?

I mean, are they saying that they're gonna file suit immediately?

'Cause this law once the governor signs, it takes effect immediately.

- It does take effect immediately.

Well, the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate are calling on businesses to kind of weigh in and speak up and voice their opposition to this, encouraging them to get the governor to veto it, which he's not going to do.

And they're saying short of that, they'll wait to find a lawsuit because they think it's a violation and it's an effort to intimidate people so that they don't speak out and express their first amendment rights.

And they think that they will be able to pursue a legal contest but it could take years.

Obviously it would have to go through Florida law first and then at the federal level and that just may take a very long time.

- So, Mary I gotta ask you about the mood in the Capitol because the governor has opened up the entire state but the one part of the state that's still shut down is the State Capitol where the people's business is going on right now, the State Capitol is pretty much the building is pretty much under lockdown.

What's it like to be up there with the whole state open except for the Capitol.

- You know, it's really surreal, you know this is probably the bill we've been talking about HB 1, DeSantis anti-riot bill is probably the most controversial bill that the legislature is addressing this session.

And yet we've had people testify against it you know, half a mile away at the Civic Center for the Senate and very small groups of people testify in the house.

And, you know, normally the opponents of this said that they would have rallies, there'd be crowds but instead it's just different.

And part of the reason is legislators didn't want the Capitol to become a super spreader event or a super spreader location.

So they've imposed these and it's a bipartisan agreement to have these strict protocols but the irony is while the governor is you know, going around the state saying the state's open for business, the Florida Capitol is not.

And when it comes to dealing with a very controversial bill, there haven't been any rallies.

There haven't been any giant groups of people to voice their protest and for that reason, it's just become historically odd.

What's happened this session - Mary Ellen, there's so many important issues.

I only have 10 seconds.

Is there a chance that a gaming bill gets passed this session?

And all I can get ask is yes or no?

- (chuckles) Maybe.

- Okay, (laughs) Mary Ellen Klaus thanks a lot for coming on Florida This Week.

- You're welcome.

(gentle music) - The federal sex crimes investigation into Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz continues, new information surface this week about a 2018 weekend trip to The Bahamas that Gaetz took with several young women.

A state legislator and an influential Republican fundraiser.

Politico Florida's senior reporter Matt Dixon has been following the story and joins us with more.

Matt, welcome back, good to see you.

- Thanks so much for having me.

- The story about the trip to The Bahamas.

What are the implications?

These are all news reports.

There's no formal charges or anything like that.

The government isn't talking, the investigators aren't talking but what are the implications if it's true that Gaetz paid for people to accompany him to The Bahamas young women and they were paid a compensation for having sex with them in another country?

- Yeah, it is important to note there's no indictments for the biggest name Matt Gaetz here, but we do know that 2018, it was September of 2018.

They took a weekend trip to The Bahamas.

There was at least five women.

Former state lawmaker Halsey Beshears who actually went on to become governor DeSantis' top regulator.

He served in the DeSantis administration and then as you'd mentioned a prominent Republican fundraiser, they went there for the weekend.

The allegation seemed to be and again just allegations or that there was payments either cash or other things of value for sex.

And if you know that can become an issue because on its face that's illegal.

And then there's a separate investigation or separate questions about whether now Congressman Gaetz had a relationship with a 17 year old which is a whole another complication because of the age.

So there's several webs and sort of several layers but what we do know is that at least part of this investigation if not the heart of it is this trip in September of 2018 that this group took The Bahamas for a weekend.

It's kind of described to us.

It was shortly after the primary that year is a bunch of, you know, people who'd worked on campaigns going to kind of blow off steam and go on a quick vacation.

So that's how, you know, it's been described to us from those who were on it.

The feds seemed to have a different idea.

- Now again, news reports are telling us this, that it appears that the Seminole Tax Collector who was a friend of Gaetz is now cooperating with the investigation.

And it's because the Seminole Tax Collector, former tax collector has a ton of problems based on his leadership of the office over there in Seminole County.

How significant is it that this person may be cooperating - Quite significant and I think it was most telling that the former Seminole County Tax Collector you're speaking of Joel Greenberg.

His attorney sort of had the quote of the scandal so far, this isn't verbatim but he essentially said after a court hearing that Matt Gaetz should feel uncomfortable right now essentially openly implying that his client was working with investigators and talking about various elements of this investigation.

So I think it's fairly clear at this point that Greenberg who is facing decades in prison, I mean, he's facing 33 separate charges related to human trafficking, public corruption, misuse of taxpayer funds, essentially, if there is a public corruption related charge that exists on the books, Joel Greenberg was facing it.

So it makes sense that he would be working with the feds to, you know, hope to one day see the outside of a prison cell.

- So back in the gubernatorial race when governor DeSantis was running, Matt Gaetz was at his side a whole lot.

In fact, they were called Batman and Robin during the last gubernatorial campaign.

Has the governor said anything about the allegations against Gaetz?

- It's not that important to state how close those two were.

He was a top advisor to the governor.

The Bahamas trip happened during the governor's election when Gaetz was working very closely with him, DeSantis was asked about this, I guess maybe a few days ago, if not, I think earlier this week, and he actually cut a reporter off and let them finish the question when he saw where it was going and said, :I have nothing to say about that."

So DeSantis is certainly not defending his long-time ally who is now under federal investigation.

- And does Matt Gaetz have any allies up there in Tallahassee where he was at one point a legislator?

- No staunch defenders but I'll also say nobody is taking shots when sort of key Republicans and those who are close to him, he was here, are asked about it.

They just kind of say, hey, it's an investigation.

We hope there are no victims.

So I would say at this point publicly, he doesn't have any huge defenders, but one's, you know using the moment to take shots at the former state lawmaker just yet.

- And have you reported on where Congressman Gaetz has gotten this six figures from that he's using in these TV ad campaigns to fight back against these allegations?

- Yeah and typical Gaetz style, he's kind of, he's gone an offense.

He's you know, he doesn't really sort of stick his head in the sand.

He fights these things and he's up on TV with some ad buys you'd reference.

I don't know specifically where that money's coming from.

The Gaetz family is quite wealthy and I believe he could also use, you know campaign type funds for that.

I don't have a specific answer to that but what I can say is this is, you know, very, very Matt Gaetz.

When he's attacked, he's a big time counter puncher and that's kind of what we're seeing here.

- Well, Matt Dixon, thanks a lot and we'll get you back to talk about the legislature next time.

- Happy to do it, thanks for having me.

(gentle music) - Well, skepticism about the safety of COVID 19 vaccines continues, including in a large portion of the Black community campaigns aimed at Black communities across the US and here in Florida are making progress to persuade people that the vaccines are safe and effective.

Florida Voices for Health is a coalition working to create a healthcare system that works for every Floridian and Andrea Peaten is the Community Immunization Liaison for the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County and is working without reach to the black community.

And Andrea Peaten, welcome to Florida This Week.

- Thank you for having me.

- Andrea, after all these months are we still seeing skepticism in the Black community about the vaccine?

- Unfortunately yes, we are seeing it in both the Black and the Brown communities and we're seeing it for several different reasons.

One of the main reasons that we hear is because of the history that the Black and Brown community has when it comes to the government and vaccines and then also different experiments.

So a lot of times what we hear is the Tuskegee experiment and then we will hear questions about Henrietta Lacks or the Trail of Tears and yes, these are all events that happened and we explain what those events were.

But we also explain how we give the vaccine out.

That, you know, vaccines aren't given based on your skin color, everyone is going to get the same vaccine, from the same lot number when they come to one of our events, we don't say, okay this is a Black person.

This is a Latino person.

This is an Asian person.

We gotta give them different lot numbers.

No, everyone gets the same vaccine from the same lot number.

- And does that message overcome the skepticism?

- For some yes, it does overcome that skepticism, but then you know, we do have some people who are just, they're wary, they're wary because their question is, well, how did this vaccine get approved so quickly?

Why is it that we are getting a vaccine that has not been approved by the FDA?

Well, the FDA did give what we call emergency approval and just to let people know in the beginning there was over 120 companies that were in the process of creating a vaccine but of those 120, there were only a handful that made it through in order for vaccines to be given in the United States.

Right now we have two, which is Moderna and Pfizer.

We have halted J & J, only because of some concern.

And they want to make sure that these concerns that have come up have been looked at and made sure that there is no possibility of harm before we start giving Johnson & Johnson's again.

- And in the case of Johnson & Johnson, it's only six people out of 6 million or 6 or 7 million who've experienced negative side effects like the blood clots and most of them have recovered.

- Yes, most of them have recovered and yes you're right.

It is only six out of 7.3 million vaccines that were given.

But because of the concern in the community, we've halted it all over the United States and they're going to look into this and then the FDA and the CDC will let us know if we're cleared to open it back up for people to use.

So you're talking about 0.00008% of the population that got the vaccine that had an adverse reaction that we're not quite sure if it was because of the vaccine or not.

- Is there an age difference between, I mean, do people over 65 have a different view of the vaccine than people who are younger and what are the younger people telling you?

- Yeah, we do see a difference.

One of the reasons why we see a difference is because our older population, 65 and older, we're talking about the generation that lived through chicken pox and measles and polio and smallpox and rubella.

So they weren't as, standoff is just the best word to say about getting the vaccine.

But the younger we get, the more we get a little bit of a pushback for the vaccine because there are questions, there is concerns.

So what we try our best to do is to answer every question.

We tell people, if you don't feel comfortable with our answers, please go talk to your doctor or a medical professional that you know, so that you can see that you're going to get the same answers and all of our answers are scientifically based.

They're facts scientific based.

- Well, Andrea Peaten thanks for coming on Florida This Week.

Thanks for doing what you do.

- You're welcome and thank you.

(gentle music) - The Florida House voted Wednesday to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's and girl's Scholastic sports.

Legislation as part of a national effort by the Republican state lawmakers to remove transgender athletes from girls and women's sports.

Equality Florida is an organization that works to improve awareness, knowledge and understanding of the transgender, non-binary community, and Gina Duncan is the Director of Transgender, Equality and she joins us now, Gina, nice to see you.

Thank you for coming on the program.

- Thank you for having me.

- What would the bill do?

- Well, this bill, both bills.

There's a bill in the house and a bill in the Senate and both bills have been fast tracked through committees and the house bill has already passed the floor of the house.

These bills are part of a national orchestrated cultural war.

If you will, against the transgender community, these bills were originated by National Anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ hate groups and they're now being introduced in over 30 States.

These bills would effectively ban transgender athletes, specifically transgender women athletes from participating in sports in the State of Florida - Gina, you were a college athlete and I wondered in your transition, how did the hormones affect your muscle mass?

And tell us a little bit about your background as a college athlete.

- Well, I had the good fortune of getting a football scholarship to East Carolina University and played under Hall of Fame coach Pat Dye there, I transitioned after coming back to Florida and getting into the mortgage banking industry.

I elected to transition and be my true and authentic self when I turned 50 in 2006 and taking hormones is usually the first step when someone ops to transition and hormones definitely impact your physiology.

I remember when I started my hormones six months after that, my family members would comment that it looked like I was melting, was the phrase they were used.

So hormones have a definite impact in reference to your physical abilities and your strength and athletic prowess.

- So, would be fair to say your muscle mass was not nearly what it was when you were a college athlete?

It diminished quite extensively once you took the hormones?

- Absolutely it did.

And this is a part of the discussion in reference to these harmful and extreme bills that are re being rammed through the Florida legislature to throw red meat to a particular political ideology.

And that's so horribly impact transgender athletes.

It's so important to note that there has not been a single incidence of a complaint of a transgender athlete in the state of Florida ever, at any time in the history of the state what we do know and what the facts bear out is that over the last decade, there are policies and rules in place that enables everyone to be able to participate in sports.

The Florida High School Athletic Association, the NCAA and even the International Olympic Committee have rules in place that enables everyone to participate with those in place.

There have not been any complaints in the state of Florida ever.

- I think the implication of the bill is that there's a long line of people wanting to transition and become young girls and women and then go on to compete in Scholastic sports or college sports and then dominate that.

I think that's the implication.

Is that what you sense?

- No, actually that is so ludicrous if you truly were aware of transgender people and transgender transitioning and gender dysphoria that when someone transitions, it's not only costly, timely but it's a long journey that involves everything from physical transitioning to changing all your personal legal documents to socially transitioning to your friends, to your church to your family members, transitioning is a serious matter.

And for someone to think that someone would transition simply to win a competitive sports event is really ludicrous.

- And final question.

How many people high school age are transitioning?

- Well, we don't know those numbers for sure but we do know that these bills impact young people as young as elementary school age.

So we're preventing young people.

We're preventing babies from participating in the Intramural sports because of their biological sex.

These laws if passed, will face immediate litigation in the courts.

The Supreme court has already made it very clear, that sex discrimination includes gender identity, gender expression and transgender status, exactly what it is.

- Gina, thank you so much for coming on Florida This Week.

- Thank you for having me.

(gentle music) - Well, finally, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones teamed up with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters to write a song about coming out of the COVID lockdown.

It's called "Easy Sleazy."

Enjoy, stay safe, we'll see you next week.

- [Man] Florida This Week is a production of WEDU who is solely responsible for its content.

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