Florida again considers bill banning Pride and other flags from government buildings
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A Progress Pride flag along with state of Florida and U.S. flags outside a Sarasota County School Board meeting. Photo: Thomas Simonetti for the Washington Post via Getty Images
A bill that would effectively ban schools, city halls and other government buildings from displaying Pride flags is back in the Legislature for the third year in a row.
Why it matters: The bill, if passed and signed into law, would make illegal the annual practice by governments including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Miami-Dade County of hoisting a rainbow flag in June to kick off Pride Month.
- It would also apply to Black Lives Matter banners and the Palestinian flag, Senate bill sponsor Rep. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne, said.
State of play: Senate Bill 100 passed its first committee stop last week. The bill's House companion hasn't been heard yet.
- Members of the Senate's Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee voted 5-2 along party lines to advance the measure, despite overwhelmingly negative feedback from public speakers.
- Critics said the bill is another form of censorship that targets vulnerable communities and that its language is vague and broad and could lead to selective enforcement.
What they're saying: "For the longest time, I knew nobody like myself. I was unseen, unheard and unnoticed," Casanova Dougherty, a 17-year-old transgender speaker from Sarasota, told lawmakers.
- "Seeing symbols like flags that represent who I am and celebrate people like myself in connection with others who understand me without a doubt played a significant part in outright saving my life."
The other side: "The idea here is that the government should not be in the political message business," Fine said at the meeting.
Zoom in: The bill language says that a government "may not erect or display a flag that represents a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint."
- While the legislation doesn't name any specific groups, Fine in a post on X referred derogatorily to the Black Lives Matter movement, pro-Palestinian demonstrators and transgender rights activists as targets.
The fine print: The bill also includes a provision that would allow active or retired members of the Armed Forces or the National Guard to use "reasonable force" to stop the desecration or destruction of the American flag.
Flashback: A nearly identical effort, also sponsored by Fine, stalled last year as lawmakers backed away from so-called culture war measures that underpinned Gov. Ron DeSantis' failed presidential campaign.
What we're watching: Whether lawmakers and a new slate of legislative leaders have an appetite for the flag proposal and other measures targeting LGBTQ+ expression remains to be seen.
- Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director for Equality Florida, is tracking the flag bill and another proposal filed Wednesday that takes aim at diversity, equity and inclusion programs at medical schools.
- But with the bill-filing deadline still a week away, and the the filing process likely stalled by recent special sessions, "I think we're going to see a lot of bills filed fast and furious in the coming days," Maurer told Axios.