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A No Kings protest in Orlando, 2025 Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\nA No Kings protest in Orlando, 2025 Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n
Amid a year filled with the chaos filtering down from the White House and our state government, Orlando once again proved that it\u2019s possible to stand up, show up and send a message. Locals this year protested against fascism, organized to provide transparency for family members of those detained by ICE, and donated to food banks and other organizations this year to help those in need during the 43-day federal government shutdown. <\/p>\n
This is the energy we love to see in our friends and neighbors. Here\u2019s to a lot more of it in 2026.<\/p>\n
Protesting the Trump administration under the slogan of \u2018No Kings\u2019<\/a> Protesting Trump\u2019s immigrant crackdown in Waterford Lakes<\/a> Rallying against the state\u2019s erasure of Pulse\u2019s rainbow-colored sidewalk<\/a> Donating to food banks to help local families in need<\/a> Standing up for immigrants detained in the county jail<\/a> Standing in solidarity with striking Starbucks workers<\/a> Orlando punks raised funds for Palestinian relief the DIY way<\/a> Postal service workers stood up against privatization<\/a> Advocates called on Disney to investigate alleged use of low-wage prison labor to fold Disney balloons<\/a> Local public school teachers defied DeSantis\u2019 effort to dismantle their union Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tJust a few extra scoops of serotonin for you\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tOrange County Mayor Jerry Demings wrote a letter to the U.S. Marshals Service on Monday seeking full reimbursement for jailing ICE detainees\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Millions of Americans nationwide, including thousands in Central Florida, rallied against the Trump administration this year at sporadic \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests organized by local activists fed up with the administration\u2019s policies and funding cuts. Our reporter and photojournalist contributors documented Orlandoans who showed up across racial and generational lines, protesting proposed cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP, as well as the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policy, billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s ketamine-inspired \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d and the generally hateful rhetoric coming from the White House. Several rallies were organized over the year at Orlando City Hall, but don\u2019t worry, Kissimmee, we saw you, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Nearly 200 Orlando residents came together near the Waterford Lakes Town Center over the first weekend of February to raise their voices loud and clear against policy decisions by Donald Trump, Stephen Miller and Elon Musk \u2014 particularly against immigration crackdowns and mass deportations. Protesters held signs with messages such as \u201cU.S. Means All of Us,\u201d \u201cHate never made America great,\u201d and \u201cI DRINK MY HORCHATA WARM BC FUCK ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite funding a paint job for it last year, the state Department of Transportation decided this year that the rainbow-colored crosswalk outside the former Pulse nightclub was too woke and painted over it in the dead of night. And Orlando wasn\u2019t having it. After all, the rainbow colors were installed to honor the 49 people killed during a mass shooting at Pulse in 2016, and served as sort of a makeshift memorial while the OnePulse Foundation stumbled around for years not building one. Local officials said it served as a roadway safety strategy, too. Many community members here saw the state\u2019s paint job as a targeted insult to the LGBTQ community \u2014 not the first we\u2019ve seen, and it\u2019s unlikely to be the last.<\/p>\n
Protest actions aren\u2019t the only way that Orlandoans stood up this year. Orlando also showed up by donating to food banks like Second Harvest and to the airport as thousands of federal workers in Central Florida were either furloughed during the government shutdown or forced to work without pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dozens of civil rights, legal and labor groups organized a coalition this year to call on Orange County leaders to ensure greater transparency for families of individuals arrested and detained by ICE agents on federal immigration holds. In response, the county directed Orange County Corrections to make it easier for families to identify family members held in the local jail, which\u00a0 has doubled as a temporary holding center for ICE detainees. Advocates regularly showed up to county commission meetings this year to keep the pressure on and organized press conferences to raise public awareness through media outlets (like Orlando Weekly), too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As workers at a unionized Starbucks location in Oviedo joined a national strike against Starbucks this month, within the first week baristas began to see community members from groups like Central Florida Jobs With Justice and the Democratic Socialists of America show up on the picket line to support them, in addition to several candidates running for elected office (and, eventually, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost). Workers at the Oviedo store first voted to unionize in 2022 and have been fighting through their union \u2014 Starbucks Workers United \u2014 to negotiate a first contract with Starbucks that would cover them and more than 11,000 other Starbucks workers across more than 550 locations who are also unionized. Florida isn\u2019t a state that\u2019s known for being particularly friendly to unions. But unionized baristas locally have told our staff reporter they see their fight as one not just to benefit their own working conditions and livelihoods, but that of future generations.<\/p>\n
Local DIY venue The S.P.O.T. (RIP) held a Palestine benefit this past February, hosting not just bands but food, clothing and jewelry vendors and a CFL Queers for Palestine booth for information on how to help locally. The lineup for the night comprised nine hardcore and punk bands from all around Florida: Right Effort, Andwhentheskywasopened, Noheartleft, AI Death Calculator, Unregistered Weapon, Bonus, Flowers for Emily, Gravess and Watts. Each band that night had a few words to say regarding Palestine and colonization, often taking the opportunity to remind the crowd of the roots of punk in its resistance to genocide. All told, the gig organizers managed to raise $3,020.68 in donations to be sent directly to Healing Our Homeland<\/a>, a grassroots women-led organization that has been providing aid and resources to Palestinians since 2016.<\/p>\n
The threat of privatization isn\u2019t new for U.S. Postal Service workers \u2014 or the Department of Veterans Affairs, while we\u2019re at it \u2014 but under Trump\u2019s second term in the White House, the chance that threat could become reality has felt closer than ever. At least that\u2019s what we heard from postal workers in Central Florida who believe USPS should remain a public service focused on serving communities indiscriminately, not padding the pockets of billionaires. Postal workers in Central Florida and across the country organized rallies this spring to say \u201cHELL NO!\u201d to privatizing America\u2019s mail delivery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local members of Central Florida Jobs With Justice stood side by side with formerly incarcerated workers outside Disney World this fall, calling on Disney to disclose that one of their subcontractors is paying Minnesota prisoners an average of 90 cents an hour to fold Disney character balloons. You know, the same balloons that cost customers $45 through a third-party vendor (or more, if you want it delivered to your Disney World Resort hotel room) that Disney promotes. According to the Minnesota Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Anagram International \u2014 a manufacturer of Disney balloons \u2014 is one of the largest contractors for the Minnesota Corrections System. Local advocates called on Disney to disclose the pay rates for prisoners who fold these balloons and to publicly advocate in support of raising those prisoners\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n
<\/a>When Gov. DeSantis signed into law a bill in 2023 that aimed to dismantle the state\u2019s teachers unions, teachers across the state rose up to meet the challenge. And that continued this year, as teachers, school psychologists, librarians and other school staff in Central Florida school districts (including Orange and Osceola) voted in favor of keeping their unions certified, as they are now annually subject to a recertification process. For teachers, a union means they get a chance to negotiate higher salaries, duty-free lunches (so they can eat their lunch in peace), stronger paid maternity leave benefits, and generally have a voice on the job, collectively, that otherwise isn\u2019t guaranteed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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