LGBTQ advocates celebrate wins after Pride flag banning bill and others fail this Session
I think the tide is turning and the superexpressive attacks on the LGBTQ+ people, both adults and kids is not working well for republicans. I think they will see at local levels people are not buying it and are working to stop efforts to wipe all mention of LGBTQ+ people from society. Hugs
Gabrielle RussonMay 3, 2025
‘This is more than a policy victory,’ Equality Florida said.LGBTQ advocates are celebrating several bills — including one that could have banned Pride flags flown at government buildings — stalling out this Session.
“Once again, we’ve done what many thought was impossible: not one anti-LGBTQ bill passed this session,” Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith said in a statement Saturday.
The Legislative Session ended Friday although lawmakers failed to pass a balanced budget.
Some of the dead bills including HB 75/SB 100 that would have banned government buildings, schools and universities, from flying flags that represented a “political viewpoint.”
The proposal was sponsored by outgoing state Sen. Randy Fine before he left for Washington, D.C.
“How would we feel if the city of Palm Bay or the city of Ormond Beach flew the Make America Great Again flag from City Hall? How would we feel if a teacher hung that in their classroom?” Fine said during a March committee hearing. “The idea is whether it’s political viewpoints that we agree with or we disagree with, let’s keep that stuff out of government buildings.”
Equity Florida lobbied against the bill with its public policy director Jon Harris Maurer calling the flag ban “unnecessary, unclear, unconstitutional and dangerous.”
“It does not help Floridians struggling with insurance and housing affordability,” he said. “Instead, it is a made-up solution to a culture war for political purposes, but it will have real harms.”
Ultimately, Fine’s bill was withdrawn, failing to reach the Senate floor.
Equity Florida also heralded the defeat of other bills, including HB 1495/SB 440 to prevent governments from using the preferred pronouns for people who are transgender and other bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI.)
The organization pointed to its grassroots campaign this Session with 400 LGBTQ activists lobbying during “our largest largest advocacy week ever,” 16,000 emails sent to lawmakers and about 325 in-person meetings with legislators.
“It’s students and seniors, faith leaders and frontline workers, parents and teachers, standing together and making sure lawmakers hear us loud and clear: we will not back down,” Smith said in a statement.
Gabrielle Russon
Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at gabriellerusson@gmail.com or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson
Scottie's Playtime 
I hope the tide is turning. I certainly celebrate these wins and hope more can be stacked. The right’s war against anything except binary genders and sexes is unspeakably backward. I despise the lies they generate and spread to support their bias and prejudice. It says so much about their lack of character. Hugs ‘n cheers, M
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Michael. I agree with you. They seem desperate to return to a semi 1950s society where white Christian cis straight men were in charge, the church was automatically thought to be wholesome and good with priests having a total air of authority, where women were subservient to men and dependent on them financially along with being required to serve men as home servants providing sex on demand, when black people knew their place and stayed there, and the LGBTQ+ were hidden not to be seen or heard and terrified to be found out which would ruin their lives. That is their golden age and the age they want to return to. I watched the series of educational films from those times warning teen boys of the dangerous sick gay men who preyed on them for sex which turned them into sick gay monsters like the men. A time when people who were different or did not stay in the society roles expected were attack and beaten while others looked the other way. I watched reefer madness which is why most of these people are so anti cannabis, because they can’t accept any progress in society or medical knowledge since that time period they are so in love with. They are regressive thinking everyone must follow the regressive moral codes of their holy book that thought owning slaves and stoning young children was a great idea. The weird thing is the only part of that time period they won’t allow or want is the high tax rate charged to the wealthy. That high tax rate on the wealthy and corporations allowed the country to expand the middle class, build and maintain a national road system, provide housing and education assistance, and let the government do so much more for the public. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person