GOP lawmakers: Flying a Pride flag, a BLM flag, ‘has no place inside of our government buildings’
Legislation that would erase the pro-LGBTQ Pride flags from state or local government property in Florida sparked passionate defenses of that community and the Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday.
“A governmental entity may not erect or display a flag that represent a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint,” the measure says, adding: “The governmental entity must remain neutral when representing political viewpoints in displaying or erecting a flag.”
The language would apply to any state or local government entity including public schools, colleges, and universities and would protect kids against being “subliminally indoctrinated with critical race theory, Marxism, transgender ideology,” its Republican co-sponsor, David Borrero of Miami-Dade County, said during a committee hearing Wednesday.
“Public classrooms should not be a place where a kid goes to be radicalized and evangelized into accepting partisan radical ideology,” Borrero continued.
“Our taxpayer dollar should not be subsidizing political speech in government buildings and classrooms. It’s time we stopped letting local government and public-school teachers from using classrooms and government buildings as their indoctrination pulpit. Flying a pride flag, a BLM flag, or flag of a political party has no place inside of our government buildings.”
The vote before the Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations Subcommittee on HB 901 went 9-5, along party lines, in favor of the bill. Next stop is before the full State Affairs committee before a possible floor vote. The Senate version, SB 1120, hasn’t had a committee hearing yet.
‘It’s repulsive’
Democrats complained that the bill, one of a number targeting the LGBTQ community this year, singles out disfavored minorities since it would apply against both Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.
“Affirming that Black lives matter is not ideology. Affirming and displaying a Pride flag does not hurt anyone. At bottom, what hurts people in this culture war codification is hate and guns, or hate and violence. It’s that combination of things that causes problems,” Rep. Dotie Joseph, ranking Democrat on the panel, said.
“It’s repulsive, and however you want to put the window dressing or lipstick on this particular pig, it has the same impact and it makes people less safe. And the reason it makes people less safe is because it validated hate” against “people who have been cherrypicked to be erased,” said Joseph, who is an attorney.
Florida local governments sometimes fly the Gay Pride Rainbow Flag over public property in solidarity with their LGBTQ residents and visitors. Teachers have displayed the flag in their classrooms to send the same message but have been forced to cut back following passage of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as “Don’t Say Gay,” in 2022 and expanded subsequently, which seeks to ban discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
Subcommittee chair Spencer Roach, a Republican representing DeSoto and parts of Charlotte and Lee counties, voted yes but pointed to problems with the existing language, including an ambiguous definition of what it considers political and what insignia government employees could wear. He suggested tightening the language rather than leaving the matter to the courts.
Subcommittee Democrats pressed Borrero on what the bill would allow and forbid. He suggested the Confederate flag would be a problem but that, say, the Israeli flag would be OK.
Cuba and Venezuela
“That is not a political flag; it the flag of a recognized nation,” Borrero said. The same logic extends to the flags of Cuba and Venezuela, he said, and flags of the Armed Forces.
The ban extends to nonfabric representations of flags — on mugs, say. “If it is a flag or it is an image of a flag, it would be precluded from being flown,” he said.
Joseph pointed out that the bill targets federally protected classifications like race, gender, national origin, and religion. “Would your law be considered discriminatory on its face?” she asked.
No, Borrero said; those subjects would still be protected generally although not in a government building. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, “when the government is the speaker, the First Amendment does not apply at all.”
The court also allows the government to bar disfavored speech by employees in the course of their duties, he added.
‘Uniting and not dividing us’
“When you get into race, one could argue that a white-supremacy flag would be a racial flag. A Nazi flag would be a racial flag. I don’t think any of us want those flags,” the bill’s co-sponsor, Republican Randy Fine of Brevard County, said. “The flags that we’re flying should be governmental flags like the American flag, the flag of Florida, things that should be uniting us and not dividing us.”
At least 53 people signed up to comment, most opposing the bill. For example, Matthew Grocholske of the Rollins College Democrats attested to what the Rainbow flag signifies.
“A Pride flag is not just a flag; it’s a symbol to me that my very existence means something. It’s a flag that unites my community, just like the American flag unites us all,” Grocholske said.
Jill Douglass, a teacher in Hillsborough County, denied the Pride flag is political.
“The Pride flag is a beacon of hope to a child who may be struggling. It is a symbol to that child that they belong and are accepted in my classroom. It is suicide prevention,” Douglass said.
Jonathan Webber, Florida policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, complained the bill could allow unfair enforcement.
“Whose job is it going to be to go around from local county to government building to determine if the flag meets muster or not?” Webber asked.
Others complained the Republicans are wasting time on cultural disputes rather than solving problems including high housing and insurance costs.
Support
On the other side, Bob White, chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, favored the bill. He claimed his family backed civil rights and that his “wonderfully funny” brother “happens to be gay.”
“Everybody’s coming up here and saying that to unify the country we need to be able fly this flag and this flag and that flag and this flag. I think they’ve got it backwards. I think if we want to be united as a country and united as a people, we all need to consider ourselves to be American first, and that the flag of the United States of America ought to be preeminent, especially in a government building and that includes schools,” White said.
John Labriola of the Christian Family Coalition argued the bill “closes an important loophole in the Parental Rights in Education Act” by preventing “activist teachers from getting around the spirit of that law by pushing indoctrination by other means.”
“The focus of the bill is not to limit personal expression, personal belief of any kind. This is to bring us back to the understanding that a public forum, we cannot espouse one political, or ideological position,” said Republican committee member Doug Bankson, representing portions of Orange and Seminole counties.
“We’re in danger of becoming an ideological Kramer vs. Kramer,” he added.
Democrat Lindsay Cross of Pinellas County objected to “the idea that a state elected representative could speak at an event surrounded by flags of MAGA or Confederate flags or pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, whatever it is, that that is inherently less problematic than a city raising a Pride flag for 30 days a year in recognition of the diversity in its community.”
‘Radical, ideological flag’
Joseph’s defense of BLM irked Berny Jacques, a Black Republican from Pinellas, who blamed the street violence nationally following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 on the organization. He also criticized the group’s call for reigning in the police.
“If that’s not ideological, I don’t know what is. And if this bill would accomplish just making sure that that radical, ideological flag is never flown above our government buildings, then it’s worth voting up on this bill,” Jacques said.
Fine also objected, claiming the BLM flag “calls for the genocide of my people.” The remark drew titters from the audience, although some activists have voiced support for the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel.
“I won’t be silenced by the mob,” Fine responded.
“I don’t want the Hamas flag flying in this room. I don’t want the Black Lives Matter flag flying in this room. And I don’t want the Trump for president flag flying in this room. Those aren’t appropriate. They’re not appropriate in this room, they’re not appropriate in our schools, they’re not appropriate in our government buildings.”
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