LEON COUNTY, Fla. — A new Florida law aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in local government is raising questions in Leon County about whether the county can continue officially recognizing events such as Emancipation Day, Black History Month, Women\u2019s History Month and Pride Month.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1134 in April. The law restricts counties and cities from spending public money on or taking certain official actions related to DEI, and it takes effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done the state agencies, but you have local governments that were spending a lot of money on these initiatives Senate Bill 1134 bars counties and municipalities from funding or implementing policies that are DEI,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
Local activist Delilah Pierre of the Tallahassee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said the issue goes beyond policy and into whether the community\u2019s history continues to be recognized.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, first and foremost, these are real history. These are things that have all happened in Leon County. Black History is a part of Leon County. Emancipation Day is a part of Leon County. Pride Month is a part of Leon County,\u201d Pierre said.<\/p>\n
Leon County leaders said they still have questions about what, specifically, falls under the new restrictions. At Tuesday\u2019s legislative priorities workshop, Commissioner Rick Minor, who represents District 3, pointed to Emancipation Day and other longstanding recognitions as examples where the county is seeking clarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the bill sponsor for 1134 was in the chamber describing his bill he even said that this legislation should it pass should not affect the observance of Emancipation Day. Now that language isn’t reflected in the bill or in the statute itself. We need to have that kind of clarification on Emancipation Day as well as some of the other holidays that he mentioned I believe in the chamber,\u201d Minor said.<\/p>\n
Pierre said the uncertainty matters beyond proclamations or celebrations, arguing that these events also serve as opportunities for education about the community and its history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we lose the history of how racism, how structural racism, systemic racism has impacted the United States of America and people in Tallahassee, Florida,\u201d Pierre said.<\/p>\n
Leon County is now asking state lawmakers to spell out what the county can continue recognizing once the law takes effect. Pierre said, \u201cEveryone in Tallahassee deserves to be uplifted as long as those people are trying to uplift others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emancipation Day has a particularly strong connection to Leon County. Emancipation was proclaimed in Tallahassee on May 20, 1865. In 2020, Leon County became the first county in Florida to officially recognize Florida\u2019s Emancipation Day as a county holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEON COUNTY, Fla. — A new Florida law aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-409128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409128","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=409128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}