Ron DeSantis bans local governments from supporting Pride and DEI in Florida
Florida governor Ron DeSantis. (Getty)
Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill this week that bans local governments from supporting Pride celebrations and other DEI initiatives.
The bill, which was signed on 22 April, will stop local governments in the Sunshine State from “funding or promoting or taking official action as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion”.
At a press conference in Jacksonville to discuss the signing of SB 1134, DeSantis called DEI “an ideological construct that is designed to promote a particular political agenda, particularly to the detriment of disfavored groups,” AP reported.
“The disfavoured groups, number one, obviously, would be white males, and I think they’ve been discriminated against,” the Republican governor continued. “And it’s like a lot of people are, ‘Oh that’s fine. That’s fine.’ No, it’s not fine. It’s wrong.”
Evelyn Foxx, president of the NAACP branch in Gainesville, responded to DeSantis’ comments, saying that the governor is entitled to his opinion but it differs from “everyone else’s”.
“If you talked to one hundred white men, they wouldn’t feel the same way,” she said. “The governor is out of touch with people, and that is the bottom line.”
According to a post by DeSantis on his X account, the new bill “prohibits counties, municipalities, contractors and grantees from using public funds to promote DEI, or maintain DEI offices or personnel.”
He goes on to explain that violations of SB 1134 will be classified as misfeasance or malfeasance in office, and residents will be able to take civil action against those that don’t comply.
SB 1134 is just the latest bill in DeSantis’ campaign against Pride and DEI. In recent months, several cities across Florida have been forced to paint over Pride crossings under directives issued by the Trump administration and DeSantis himself.
This included the removal of a rainbow crosswalk in Miami Beach and the memorial rainbow crossing outside the site of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed in an anti-LGBTQ+ mass shooting in 2016, being painted over.
However, LGBTQ+ Floridians have remained defiant, with the city of St. Petersburg installed Pride-inspired rainbow bike racks in response. The city’s mayor Ken Welch called it “a vibrant way to honor the Pride street murals that were removed earlier this year due to state requirements”.
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