LGBTQ activists flood committee considering bill banning political flags from government buildings

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – LGBTQ activists flooded a committee on Wednesday, demanding the board vote down a bill that would ban the display of political flags on government buildings.

The legislation, HB 901, was sponsored by Rep. David Borerro, R-Sweetwater and Rep. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne Beach. It passed the House Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law and Government Operations by a vote of 9-5.

Borrero and Fine’s bill states that government entities are not allowed to display flags representing political viewpoints, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or a political ideology viewpoint.

The public comment period lasted roughly an hour due to the amount of citizen statements on the legislation. The committee ultimately had to limit each speaker to 30 seconds in order to get through the list of names.

John Harris Mauer, the public policy director for Equality Florida spoke out against the bill, claiming it was “unnecessary, unclear and unconstitutional.”

“It purports to preserve the free speech rights of private individuals, but it fails to honor the constitution,” Mauer said. “Please oppose the bill.”

Another speaker argued that pride and Black Lives Matter flags “unite humanity.” The speaker also claimed that Florida’s state government is a “fascist regime.”

Kimberly Cox, an activist with Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida, said that the Israeli flag hanging in DeSantis’ office is not neutral, especially to Palestinians and anyone who opposes their tax dollars being spent on a “genocide.”

Cox also protested the allotted amount of public speaking time given to speakers, saying that 30 seconds was “ridiculous” when the legislature is “stripping our rights away.”

Other activists expressed emotional connections to the bill by attempting to relay their own personal experiences.

“No matter how many stories you are given, you will never understand the experiences of so many students in this state,” Max Fenning, the Executive Director of PRISM, said.

“You will never understand the sigh of relief when you step into a classroom with a rainbow flag so you can focus more on calculating derivatives and cosigns rather than the probability of your teacher drawing a line in the sand when you are being mocked and ridiculed,” he added.

During public comment, speakers in favor of the bill also came up to defend and argue in support of it. One such supporter included a representative from the Christian Family Coalition, based in Miami.

“This bill closes an important loophole in the Parental Rights in Education Act,” the representative explained. “It stops would-be activist teachers from getting around the sphere of that law by pushing indoctrination through other means.”

He explained that the correction is needed because of a lawsuit in Palm Beach County where a teacher flew two pride flags in her middle school science classroom.

Borerro explained in the committee that the premise of the bill is “very simple” and one that “we should all agree with.”

“Our taxpayer dollars should not be subsidizing political speech in government building and classrooms,” he said. “It’s time we stop letting local governments and public school teachers from using classrooms and government buildings as their indoctrination pulpit.”

“Flying a pride flag, a BLM [Black Lives Matter] flag or flag of a political party has no place inside of our government buildings,” he added.

“There is but one flag that unites us, members,” Borrero continued. “That is the same flag that stood tall over Fort McHenry during the battle of Baltimore in 1814. Just one flag that six of our marines raised during the battle of Iwo Jima in Japan. There is just one flag that all of us pledge allegiance to. That is the flag of the United States of America. The red, the white, the blue.”

Fine explained that although their are people that live nearby him who fly the “flag of Hamas,” he would never file or vote up on legislation that would take their rights to do that away.

“If these people want to come in here wearing the Hamas flag or any other flag around them, they can do that, they’re here in their private capacity,” he said. “But those flags don’t go at the back of this room.”

“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,” he added.

Several legislators, including Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach, and Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, joined the bill sponsors in defense of the legislation.

Jacques specifically spoke up in response to arguments that had been made about the BLM flag was not ideological.

“Mind you, this is the same group that called for the dismantling of the nuclear family,” he said. “This is the same group that said that they’re motivated, inspired by marxist ideology. This is the same group that calls for the ridiculous notion of reparations. This is the same group that fulminated violence and encouraged rioting against our communities and violence against our law enforcement officers.”

He added that if the bill only addressed getting the BLM flag off public buildings, it would be worth voting for.

Roth emphasized the importance of understanding constitutional rights, especially when it came to the first amendment. He also mentioned that the legislation was “sensible” in that it was trying to correct a movement that may be going “too far.”

“I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” he said.

“What we’re talking about here is, you want have a rally? You want to have a march? You want to have a meeting and flags and all that? You’re welcome to do that,” he continued. “We’re just saying you can’t fly a pride flag at Palm Beach Gardens Elementary school, which they did a couple years ago in West Palm Beach.”

“Flying a pride flag from a school is saying, ‘Oh, we believe in this indoctrination. We believe that we should be pushing a certain agenda,'” Roth said. “What we’re trying to say in this space, in my opinion, is we’re saying everybody has a right to their beliefs, everybody has the right to express it privately, but we’re not going to pick winners and losers and put flags in government buildings and on government flag poles.”