One of the first casualties of a new Florida law that prohibits taxpayer dollars from going toward diversity initiatives is a St. Patrick's Day parade in a beach town that has been celebrating its Irish American community for nearly 60 years.
The city of Delray Beach announced this week that it was canceling its popular St. Patrick's Day festivities in compliance with a new law that takes effect on Jan. 1. The city will also withdraw its sponsorship of LGBTQ Pride celebrations in June, officials said.
The law, backed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is part of the state's ongoing crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that the governor has called discriminatory and said have "no place" in public institutions.
The city lawyer for Delray Beach, a community in southeast Florida with picturesque beaches and a historic downtown, told the mayor that any government-sponsored celebrations of culture, ethnicity or heritage that are not a national holiday (for example: Independence Day) could run afoul of the new anti-DEI law. So, Mayor Tom Carney said, he made the difficult decision to cancel one of the city's biggest events of the year.
In past years, the parade, an annual event since 1970, wound its way through the downtown core of Delray Beach with spectators lined up several-people deep along the route. Local businesses and organizations sponsored floats and giveaways. School bands played as they marched through the streets. Participants included members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the largest and oldest Irish Catholic organization in the country.
"I've said it's engrained in the DNA of Delray and I do mean that. It's one of our signature events," Carney, a Republican, told NPR.
The mayor said he's hopeful that the city can find a path forward — and a way to preserve the event.
If a private sponsor were to volunteer to take over the St. Patrick's Day parade, or the June Pride celebrations, Carney said, the city would gladly hand over the reins and support the continuation of these festivities.
"These types of events we should be celebrating because in this country, people can have these events. In other countries, you can't do this. We have great freedoms here," he said. "And if the community wants something and it's not against public policy then I would support them to do it if they're using private dollars. If we can do it, we should do it."
Carney, who is of Irish descent, said the parade was privately run until about eight years ago — so returning to a private-sponsorship model would be a callback to the parade's origins. His own family, he said, was involved in keeping the parade going during the 1980s and 1990s.
Delray Beach officials said they have been inundated with emails, calls and social media messages from constituents who are angry that the community's decades-long celebration had been axed.
"It was kind of a call to action to me," Carney said. "The community really wants to have it, so we should go ahead and have it, we just need to get it privately funded."
The governor, meanwhile, has accused Delray Beach of weaponizing the new anti-DEI measure to make a political point. DeSantis said the city was "engaging in "malicious compliance" in a message he posted on X following the city's cancellation announcement.
"What they are doing is not mandated by Florida law," the governor wrote. "It's just an attempt to make a political point — a point that legacy media will no doubt try to amplify. We've seen these stunts throughout the years. Rinse and repeat."
The mayor said the city is merely trying to stay out of trouble with the law. The measure, SB1134, asserts that any official that violates the provision could face civil or legal consequences.
"The legislation has unintended consequences. The governor may genuinely believe what he believes and I take him at his word; our city attorney came up with a different conclusion," Carney said. "I'm going to leave it at that."
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