Florida Passes Bill That Lets DeSantis Remove Local Elected Officials From Office For "Promoting" Pride

The bill could heavily impact LGBTQ+ activities throughout the state, and is the latest exercise in the erosion of democracy there.

Florida State Capitol // Michael Rivera // Wikimedia Commons

On Tuesday, the Florida legislature passed a bill that would ban all local governments from "promoting" or "adopting" activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion—and bar any recipients of city contracts or grants from doing the same. The bill explicitly includes gender identity and sexual orientation in its definition of DEI, meaning any official activity "with reference to" LGBTQ+ people could trigger a violation. That could include promoting or supporting local Pride events with any city resources or funding LGBTQ+ community health centers. The bill also contains a novel and extreme enforcement mechanism: any elected official the governor deems in violation would be guilty of "misfeasance in office," which under the Florida Constitution gives Governor DeSantis the power to immediately suspend that official by executive order—without a court hearing. It is a power he has already weaponized twice against elected Democratic state attorneys, and which would now expand to every city commissioner and county official in the state.

The new bill, SB 1134, is sweeping and deliberately vague. It states that any city or county office or official acting in their official capacity cannot "promote or adopt training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation." It also mandates that local governments not use funds for "contractors, employees, vendors, volunteers, or agents" who will "ascribe to, study, or be instructed" using materials with reference to the same identity categories, which could impact community health centers, hospitals, and nonprofit services in cities across the state.

Importantly, this bill contains an extreme enforcement mechanism. Under Florida's constitution, the governor can suspend elected officials from office for misfeasance—and this does not require a court hearing. The governor can simply issue an executive order, and the official is out. The suspended official's only recourse is an appeal to the Republican-controlled Florida Senate, which holds a 28-12 supermajority. SB 1134 would expand those powers to include declaring support for LGBTQ+ activities or programming in an elected official's official capacity to be an act of misfeasance worthy of removal from office, with DeSantis himself able to use these powers with a stroke of his pen. He has already weaponized this provision twice—suspending Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022, in part for pledging not to criminalize gender-affirming healthcare, and suspending Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell in 2023. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his authority to do so. This bill would hand him the same power over every city commissioner, county official, and municipal officer in the state.

The bill could have enormous consequences for Pride across the state. While it does not technically ban Pride events, the practical effect on Pride parades may be devastating. Florida's drag ban, which was recently put back into effect by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December, has already been interpreted to potentially bar parades that include drag performers—which is most Pride parades—from allowing minors to attend. When the drag ban first passed in 2023, Port St. Lucie canceled its Pridefest parade entirely, and Tampa Pride canceled all 2026 events citing the political climate, loss of corporate sponsorships, and the "discontinuation of DEI programs." Now, SB 1134, should it be signed by the governor, would extend the assault even further, barring any city from co-sponsoring, funding, or officially promoting Pride events.

Under broad interpretations of the bill's language, this could prohibit cities from displaying Pride flags on government property, sending official city delegations to march in parades, posting Pride events on city websites or social media, issuing proclamations recognizing Pride Month, or providing city resources like water trucks and staff time to support festivals. These are not hypotheticals—the City of Wilton Manors currently spends $50,000 in direct funding and an additional $48,000 in city services to co-sponsor Stonewall Pride, a large Pride event in the state. The bill arrives in the context of an escalating war on LGBTQ+ visibility in Florida: the state already forced cities across South Florida to remove Pride rainbow crosswalks last summer under a separate law, including the rainbow crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando where 49 people were murdered. City officials in Key West, Fort Lauderdale, and Delray Beach who fought to preserve their crosswalks would, under SB 1134, now risk being removed from elected office for doing so.

"This bill is dangerous, vague by design, and part of a broader political agenda of censorship and government overreach," said Stratton Pollitzer, executive director of Equality Florida, in a statement following the bill's passage. "Once again, Florida lawmakers have manufactured a sweeping anti-LGBTQ law—legislation intended to bully local governments and have a chilling effect on how they celebrate and support the diverse communities they serve. Florida's LGBTQ community knows all too well how to fight back against unjust laws. Just as we did following the passage of Florida's notorious 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' law, we will fight every step of the way to limit the impact of this legislation, including in the courts."

Florida is not the first place to attempt this. Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—whose anti-LGBTQ+ policies DeSantis's office has openly acknowledged as a model for Florida's Don't Say Gay law—Hungary banned Pride outright last year, even amending its constitution to block legal challenges. When Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony defied the ban by designating Pride as an official city event and leading 200,000 people through the streets, the government filed criminal charges against him. SB 1134 creates a strikingly similar mechanism on American soil: a local official who uses their office to support Pride commits misfeasance, and the governor can suspend them unilaterally. In Hungary, the mayor faces a fine. In Florida, DeSantis wouldn't even need to go to court.

The bill now heads to Governor DeSantis's desk. Given his record on LGBTQ+ issues—including signing Don't Say Gay, a drag ban, and the ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth—a veto is virtually inconceivable. If signed, the bill takes effect January 1, 2027, at which point any existing local ordinances, resolutions, programs, or policies deemed to relate to LGBTQ+ people and other “DEI” activities would be immediately void. The bill is likely to face court challenges, though the 11th Circuit Court and Florida’s Supreme Court have both been among the most hostile courts towards LGBTQ+ people.