Longtime South Florida columnist Fred Grimm has written his final piece for the Sun Sentinel after 56 years on the job. In his farewell column, he reflects on a career covering a range of tragedies, from natural disasters and KKK rallies to mass murders and drug wars. However, he claims that nothing compares to the current toxic atmosphere in Florida. Grimm’s lede reads, “Not that it hasn’t been fun chronicling Florida’s descent into a waterlogged, python-infested, uninsurable, hurricane-pummeled, book-banning, gay-bashing authoritarian dystopia, but I’m outta here." Throughout the piece, Grimm oscillates between sober observation and caustic cynicism, hallmark traits of his style. He recalls that while photographers received “bulletproof vests,” reporters were given “skinny notebooks and Bic pens.” This minimalist armor sufficed for decades until the political climate shifted with the elections of Donald Trump and Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis. The rise of a virulently homophobic right-wing led Grimm to reassess his career. At 76, Grimm has chosen to retire. Talking about the current political environment and the status of news media, Grimm says that nowadays, when journalists expose the unseemly actions of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, their campaigns turn the revelation into a fundraiser, making Grimm wonder if he was “inadvertently working for the DeSantis campaign.” At the end of his column, Grim says, “ Time to leave this space to writers of the Glass-half-full kind.” This column has since gone viral, garnering attention from outlets like Fox News. #Queer Up South Florida & Florida