Lake County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to designate Schofield Road in the southern part of the county as a memorial to the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The vote came after many residents spoke out against the idea, citing Kirk's views and comments as divisive.
Similar designations elsewhere in Florida are in the pipeline.
At a meeting Wednesday evening, the Melbourne City Council plans to discuss renaming part of Cypress Avenue as Charlie Kirk Lane. And a bill filed Tuesday -- House Bill 33 -- would designate a portion of State Road 985 in Miami-Dade County as Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue.
In Lake County, Commissioner Anthony Sabatini -- a conservative firebrand himself -- was behind the memorial designation.
“I'm hoping every county steps up,” he said, “and I'm hoping every city steps up to name some place or road after Charlie Kirk. He truly was, in my opinion, the greatest member of our generation thus far."
Other commissioners praised him as “a devout Christian” and said his controversial comments -- like calling the Civil Rights Act a mistake -- were taken out of context.
Sabatini said he knew Kirk personally and spent time with him.
“And so I don't think that any normal, sane person would ever speak out against naming a significant road after somebody as great as Charlie Kirk,” Sabatini said.
He heckled a man who suggested honoring a slain sheriff's deputy instead. Sabatini shouted: “How dare you! You're disgusting. You're a disgusting person.”
A few residents spoke in support. Twenty-five spoke in opposition. Many, like pastor Michael Watkins, denounced Kirk’s assassination but highlighted hurtful things that he had said.
“He said about Black women, you don't have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You are taking white people's jobs. He said it,” Watkins said. “I guess I got to ask the question, do we agree with it? Do we think that that's OK?”
