Jason Carles
Jason Carles is a Tallahassee activist.
LGBTQ rights
According to Elijah Lieberman on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 25 students gathered at the steps of the Florida State University (FSU) Student Union to kick off FSU’s Pride Month and demand FSU defend the rights of transgender students. Students chanted “No hatred! No discrimination! What do we need? Trans liberation!” and “Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Ron DeSantis, go away!”
Speakers at the event talked about the importance of LGBTQ rights, particularly trans rights, and how they overlap with the struggles of oppressed nationalities and the working class. Jason Carles, vice president of the FSU Student Farmworker Alliance and Outreach Coordinator for the Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society, stated in his speech, “Queer liberation doesn’t happen on its own. Every struggle is interconnected.” After his speech, Carles mentioned how “The Coalition of Immokalee Workers strives to protect the rights of all farmworkers in the state of Florida in the same way that the SDS fights for the rights of all students in the country.”
Delilah Pierre, president of the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, also gave a speech where she said, “We don’t just want a ‘happy Pride Month’, we want substance!” TCAC has been fighting for Tallahassee to become an LGBTQ+ Sanctuary City, which would mandate local police entities have “LGBTQ+ related crimes” as their lowest priority.
The event was hosted by FSU Students for a Democratic Society (FSUSDS). Members of the FSU Graduate Assistants United, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and VEG FSU also attended the event in support.
Joelle Nunez, President of Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society, closed out with a powerful call to action, “FSU President McCullough has the power to make trans students feel safe on our campus; our city commissioners have the power to make trans residents of Tallahassee feel safe. The reason the people in power do nothing to help us is simply because they do not want to. But we’re gonna make them listen!”[1]
Rally against Florida House Bill 999
According to Jason Carles and Sierra Jones Frishman, on Tuesday, March 28, over 100 students held a rally against Florida House Bill 999, at the Skateable Art Park in the city’s Railroad Square. This bill gives the Florida Board of Governors the ability to review curriculum in higher education, review tenure of professors with the power of removal, and provides direction to each university on “removing from its programs any major of minor in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality."
At the protest, led by three Florida chapters of New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), student speakers demanded an end to HB 999 and called it a threat to public education.
Enya Silva from Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society said of the bill, "Last year DeSantis passed the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ to limit discussions of race in K12 school and attacked AP African American history. Why did he single out that course specifically? Because he wants to erase Black history."
Emily Dorgan of Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society noted the bill’s attacks on feminism, stating “HB 999 targets women and gender studies classes as well; courses such as women in literature and feminist ethics are under attack with this legislation. This would be taking us back to a time when women and LGBTQIA+ people were excluded from academia and would be an extreme set-back for gender equality.”
Miffordens Registre from Florida State University Black Men in Medicine said, "Right now, we are seeing these attacks on diversity begin with education. But it'll continue on into the health industry and affect health professionals. We cannot let that happen. We stand with Students for a Democratic Society and your demands!"
Laura Rodriguez, one of the Tampa 4 said, "Shame on [USF President] Rhea Law.
Kenya Sanchez Torres from the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee said, "We are demanding that the current Hillsborough state attorney picked by Governor Ron DeSantis drop the charges against the Tampa 4.
Monique Sampson from the Jacksonville Community Action Committee said, "This struggle lives in the memory of the 2020 Justice for George Floyd Uprising. You can bet that these politicians remember that and want us protesters to go away. But when you touch one of us, you touch all of us. We are not going anywhere!"
After SDS’s rally, students marched across the street to join a rally on the other end of Railroad Square, where they heard from other student grassroots organizations, members of Florida university student governments, women’s advocacy groups, veterans, College Democrats, NAACP and National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters, and the president of United Faculty of Florida.
After SDS’s rally, students marched across the street to join a rally on the other end of Railroad Square, where they heard from other student grassroots organizations, members of Florida university student governments, women’s advocacy groups, veterans, College Democrats, NAACP and National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters, and the president of United Faculty of Florida, Andrew Gothard, and Florida public officials such as the head of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried.
Alivia Kalin of University of North Florida led the crowd in a callout of the Board of Governors shortly before the meeting, as they said, “You want to ban books? To defund DEI programs? To punish teachers for teaching diversity? Shame! Don’t you dare erase religious history, deaf history, and don’t you dare erase disabled history!”
Even in the wake of the Board of Governors’ decision, and the swift advancement of HB 999 through committee, SDS and its allies refuse to back down. As the rally’s emcee Cas Casanova from Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society reminded the crowd, “every freedom we have now exists because we fought for it,” and as Jason Carles from Florida State University Students for a Democratic Societyremarked, “even if HB 999 becomes law, the power we have gained from our education, and the will to fight for that education, can never be taken from us.”[2]
‘Down with DeSantis!’
On February 22, about 35 students, community members and faculty rallied on the front steps of the Student Union at Florida State University. The rally was organized by FSU’s chapter of Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (FSUSDS) in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent attacks on diversity programs and multicultural studies.
Attendees chanted “Money for schools and education, not for racist legislation!” “Education is liberation!” and “Black education matters!”
According to their official statement, FSUSDS has four primary demands for Florida State: One, the protection and expansion of all multicultural studies; two, the increase of Black student enrollment and professors; three, the protection of transgender students and athletes; and four, opposing DeSantis and his requests and recommendations.
In the past few weeks, DeSantis has made attacking DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs one of his top priorities. FSUSDS has held several rallies against his actions and policies in the past few months, such as his recent investigations into transgender university students and the denial of AP African American History for high school students.
Jason Carles, representing FSUSDS, drew attention to this, telling the crowd, “Less than two weeks ago we had a very similar protest with the same demands,” and “It’s disappointing that DeSantis keeps pushing this issue but as long as we are here, we’re going to fight back against it.”
While groups like FSUSDS have kept the fight going, the movement cannot and will not stop with just one event. Kaela Braxton, president of FSU’s Black Law Student Association, stressed the need for student advocacy and activism: “As students it shouldn't be our job to educate our leaders on why diversity, equity and inclusion is so important, but we have to make it our job if we want to preserve DEI initiatives on campus and keep [campus] a safe and welcoming environment for all students.”
Students expressed messages of hope and dedication to the ongoing struggle. Alex Carson, vice president of FSUSDS and organizer for FRSO, noted, “When FSU refused to get rid of the statue of slave owner Francis Eppes, SDS did not stop organizing and mobilizing students and community members in the fight to have it removed. Students like us fighting is the only reason it got taken down. The battle for education will be no different - in order to defeat the DeSantis agenda, we need a sustained movement built by as many students as possible!”
FSUSDS fought for more than five years to have the statue of slave owner Francis Eppes removed from campus. It was finally taken off of campus in the summer of 2020.
The February 22 event was cosponsored by several groups, including the Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC), Veg FSU, FSU Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA), the Black Law Student Association (BLSA), Food Not Bombs (FNB), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).[3]
"Don't say gay" protest
According to Jason Carles and Isabela Casanova, on Monday, April 18 2022, Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a march against Florida’s repressive HB1557. Led by SDS officers Isabela Casanova and Chudi Oraedu, a group of roughly 40 students marched from FSU’s Legacy Fountain to the Integration Statue, chanting “Homophobia has got to go” and “Trans lives matter.”
SDS member Kasidy Brown stated during his speech: “These communities are already put at risk, and I think these bills like this enable people to cause harm to LGBTQ+ people. It allows people to commit harm against us, because they know that they will get away with it.”
As Noella Williams of FSU GenAction says, “Just because the bills passed doesn’t mean that there’s nothing we can do anymore - we can still fight in our local communities, we can still try and protect students that are in Leon County, that are in Florida schools.”
SDS was joined by multiple organizations, including the Florida State Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA), VEG FSU, FAMU Generation Action, the Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC), the Tallahassee Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), FSU Gender Odyssey and the FSU College Democrats.[4]