City Council unanimously approved a resolution opposing any state legislature that discriminates against people based on the sexual orientation, gender identity or any other protected identity.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Richie Floyd brought the resolution to the June 11 city council meeting, amid Pride Month, and while that makes the proclamation timely, Floyd said, \u201cA big reason why I did it is because it\u2019s our last opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
For context, legislation trickling down from the state capitol known as the \u201canti-DEI bill\u201d prohibits \u201cfunding, promoting, supporting, or maintaining\u201d diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and impose unusually severe penalties for violations.<\/p>\n
The penalties for non-compliance are severe: public officials found acting contrary to the law could face accusations of \u201cmalfeasance,\u201d exposing them to possible removal from office, civil liability or criminal consequences.<\/p>\n
But the city\u2019s resolution counter the anti-DEI bill with the belief that \u201cthe City cannot be welcoming to all while remaining silent as our neighbors and visitors are singled out and harmed by state policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the \u201clast opportunity\u201d before the bill is effectuated Jan. 1, 2027. The loose language of the Anti-DEI bill has perplexed officials who must instead lean on the expertise of the city\u2019s attorneys to parse what does and doesn\u2019t fall under the punitive language of the bill. Those determinations will dictate what programs St. Pete can continue funding and supporting, such as the Pride events.<\/p>\n
Floyd said that the city attorney\u2019s work parsing the bill is \u201congoing\u201d and that they have \u201cmonths to sort out the language.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is known now is that the anti-DEI bill does not necessarily mean events like Pride will vanish, but the city may diminish its role to ensure the event\u2019s legality. Floyd assured that the city can still provide infrastructure via permits and public safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the anti-DEI bill was written to make us all hesitate. It does a good job of sewing fear, and that\u2019s by design,\u201d Floyd told the Catalyst, because the language forces local officials to second guess the legality of their decision, opening themselves up to lawsuits or removal from office.<\/p>\n
When asked if the loose language of the bill could work in favor for a city being sued for breaking the anti-DEI bill (since it doesn\u2019t clearly define all illegal programs), Floyd said that\u2019s possible. \u201cLitigation of the bills language may get specified through court cases, so in theory, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, for now, the city is leaning on its beliefs, not court cases: \u201cSt. Petersburg\u2019s strength comes from our working people coming from diverse communities and from a shared commitment to taking care of one another,\u201d states the resolution.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s stay in touch \u2013 send story ideas and leads to aaron@cityverse.life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council unanimously approved a resolution opposing any state legislature that discriminates against people based on the sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-306647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306647","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=306647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}