In Wilton Manors, where rainbow flags adorn every other business and many homes, locals are getting ready for the LGBTQ+ Pride festival on Saturday, June 20 with an estimated crowd of at least 50,000.
This, though, will be the last year the Broward County city can provide $50,000 to the annual Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival because of a new Florida law passed under Gov. Ron DeSantis. SB 1134 banned any municipal support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs or events.
So, after this summer, Wilton Manors officials will no longer even be able to ride atop a float in its glow night parade, according to Wilton Manors Commissioner Paul Rolli.
“We are a target. Wilton Manors is a target for Tallahassee,” he said. “They’d love for us to make a misstep and pull somebody out. They could pull one commissioner out or they could pull everybody.”
SB 1134 establishes aggressive enforcement allowing individual citizens to sue and be awarded legal fees and damages from local elected officials. It allows for the removal of elected officials by explicitly labeling a DEI funding vote as misfeasance. The Wilton Manors Commission voted last month to put a ballot measure in front of residents to allow for local control in filling any vacancies.
The new law doesn’t go into effect until 2027, but municipalities are getting ready heading into budget season. In Delray Beach, the city pulled $15,000 from its Pride festival and it was canceled. Key West, which held its festival earlier this month, was notified by Monroe County that $75,000 will be canceled in the next fiscal year.
Equality Florida, the state’s largest civil rights advocacy organization, is advising municipalities of hard-earned carve outs from SB 1134, such as allowing permitting of local events, police and public safety support for such events and support for public health programs, such as HIV outreach.
Still, the chilling effect has been pretty pronounced, said Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida’s Public Policy Director. “The law was intentionally written with broad and vague terms to cast a wide net,” Maurer said. “Local governments are considering pre-compliance because of the vague language and the very draconian penalties.”
That wide net catches much more than just the LGBTQ+ community but anything or anyone that appears to support diversity, equity and inclusion.
“The disfavored groups, No. 1, obviously would be white males, and I think they’ve been discriminated against,” DeSantis said in April when he signed the bill.
Still, for the LGBTQ community, the anti-DEI law is just another example of how Florida has become increasingly inhospitable for an estimated 900,000 of its residents.
Why Florida’s LGBTQ+ community feels like it has been targeted
DeSantis had his Department of Transportation paint over rainbow intersections and crosswalks — including one in front of the Pulse shooting memorial in Orlando — under the guise of traffic safety. He and the Republican-led Legislature have targeted literature, pronouns, driver’s license gender markers, gender-affirming care and free speech of teachers.
“DeSantis has been relatively successful so far in his effort to marginalize the queer community,” said Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. “He’s been extremely disastrous for our community and come January he will have the power to remove elected officials if they make any steps to support their constituents.”
Hoch said there are numerous community programs that rely on their local municipality in some way — possibly not even monetarily — that could be affected. And fear permeates many municipalities. In Delray Beach, for example, the city’s lobbyists warned elected leaders that if they supported a Pride festival, Tallahassee would take away funding for infrastructure projects.
“What they should say is, ‘I’m here to represent my constituents and my constituents. They have enjoyed these festivals for years. It brings money to our community, brings recognition to our community,’” he said.
What is the economic impact of Florida LGBTQ+ Pride festivals?
“These events are a boon to the city,” said Rolli, the Wilton Manors commissioner. Wilton estimates its one-day street festival generates over $6 million in direct economic impact. Across the state in St. Petersburg, the city estimates its Pride festival on the last weekend in June generates $60.7 million.
A flashpoint illustrating how local governments are running scared involved the Compass LGBTQ+ Community Center in Lake Worth when Palm Beach County denied a request from the city for a $302,000 federal Community Development Block Grant to pay for failing air conditioners, elevators and roof repairs. After community outcry, the county said it reversed course — but Compass has yet to see the money as the temperature rises.
What was lost on the county’s kneejerk reaction, said Compass Director Julie Seaver, was that the center is used by many, not just LGBTQ+. “That ballroom is the largest meeting space in the 33460 zip code that gets the most action from the community and large groups throughout the year,” she said.
Seaver referred to SB 1134 as the “anti-everybody bill.”
“The one form of protest we can do, especially during Pride month, is we’ve got to at least attend one thing where you’re in the community because joy spreads joy,” she said.
John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida’s LGBTQ groups fear Pride Month festivals are doomed with DEI law
Reporting by John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida | USA TODAY Network
