Miami-Dade Commissioner Vicki Lopez<\/a>, a former Republican state lawmaker, said the bill would hamper the county from issuing grants to local nonprofits representing Hispanic businesses or staffing county boards focused on different parts of the community, including the Black Affairs Advisory Board.<\/p>\n\u201cThat would mean things like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
State lawmakers in one committee asked about how the bill could impact pride parades and the safety of participants.<\/p>\n
The bill does carve out certain activities that would still be appropriate for local government, including celebrating federal and state holidays and special observances, like Martin Luther King Jr. Day; providing fire and safety services for permitted events, like pride festivals; and allowing targeted public health services based on race, gender and ethnicity.<\/p>\n
Because LGBTQ+ pride is not a federal or state special holiday, pride festivals and other celebrations not carved out explicitly in the bill wouldn\u2019t be able to get public money.<\/p>\n
But Yarborough said that \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean the event can\u2019t take place.\u201d<\/p>\n
If local lawmakers violated the bill, they could face removal from office. Local governments in violation could face lawsuits from any county or city residents who would choose to sue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going to end up happening is cities are going to not touch this with a 10-foot pole,\u201d said Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens. \u201cAnd then none of these events or nothing will happen. Now you have an upset community that doesn\u2019t feel represented.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation, if passed, could prohibit any local government from having a DEI office or dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion officer.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg has had a chief equity officer since 2023. Last year, he suggested renaming his office \u2014 the former Office of Equity is now called the Office of Community Impact.<\/p>\n
Another St. Petersburg office, formerly called the Office of Supplier Diversity, was designed to help minority-owned businesses compete for city contracts and has since been renamed.<\/p>\n
With those changes, the city feels protected, said city chief of staff Doyle Walsh.<\/p>\n
Walsh said the city was \u201cobviously concerned about \u2026 some of the other implications\u201d in the bill, but said he would need to look at it further to understand the impact.<\/p>\n
David Thompson, St. Petersburg\u2019s director of government affairs, noted that compared to a prior version of the bill, this year\u2019s bill is better defined, which would help lawyers know what\u2019s permissible and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
In a statement, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city urges state lawmakers to consider the \u201cbroad economic, social, and legal consequences\u201d of the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur city is committed to inclusive progress and ensuring every resident can fully participate in civic life, free from discrimination and exclusion,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n
Last year, the bill failed to pass in the House or Senate. But this year, it\u2019s one of the few pieces of legislation that DeSantis has explicitly come out in support of.<\/p>\n
In January, DeSantis said that \u201cFlorida has led the nation on DEI elimination\u201d and gave a shoutout to the bill from Yarborough and Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, the House sponsor. The Heritage Foundation\u2019s lobbying arm is also backing the bill.<\/p>\n
The bill has two more stops to go in the House and one more stop in the Senate before it could reach the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n
Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Because LGBTQ+ pride is not a federal or state special holiday, pride festivals and other celebrations not carved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77863,77864,123,77866,125,124,77865],"class_list":["post-162782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-florida-dei-bill","tag-local-government-dei-ban","tag-miami","tag-miami-beach-concerns","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-tallahassee-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}