A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor is supporting legislation that would restrict the type of flags that can be flown by governmental entities.
“Well, I haven’t seen it, but if you take a position that we’re going to fly the American flag and the state of Florida flag and that’s it, it’s not targeting anybody. It’s basically saying that we’re not going to get into this business of doing this. So I think that’s totally fine,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in Orange City.
To say “you can fly any flag you want except one or two,” DeSantis added, “would be maybe a content-based discrimination.”
“But if you say we’re going to fly the U.S. flag, we’re going to fly the state of Florida flag on our public buildings, I think that that’s totally appropriate to be able to do,” the Governor said.
He then lamented ideological flags flown on U.S. governmental buildings globally.
“I mean, you have seen around the world, our embassies flying, I mean, it’s just absurd, some of the things that they’ve done. And so if the Legislature just wants to say, here’s what we’re doing, these two and that’s that, then I don’t think that there’s any problem with that.”
Bills have been filed in the Senate and the House to govern flag content.
SB 1120, a bill by Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin being heard in the Governmental Oversight and Accountability committee on Tuesday, holds that a “governmental entity may not erect or display a flag that represents a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint. The governmental entity must remain neutral when representing political viewpoints in displaying or erecting a flag.”
That’s its first committee stop.
Meanwhile, the House version (HB 901) has one committee stop ahead.
8 comments
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
February 6, 2024 at 2:22 pm
GOVERNMENT BUILDING ARE NOT BILLBOARDS.
Governments are not supposed to peddle “values”; they provide certain goods and services, nothing more. They can fly State and US flags as part of their “idendti-kit” characteristics, I suppose, but anything beyond that is advertising for one value over another. If they’gonna fly any additional messages, I want the Libertarian Flag up there, too (the “Gadsden Flag”).
Michael K
February 6, 2024 at 3:04 pm
So that means no city flag, no POW flag, no sister city flag, no nothing else just to spite the LGBTQ community that seems to fill Rhonda with so much anger and hate. Forget home rule, y’all are now wards of DeSatanstan.
Meanwhile your insurance rates are sky high.
Sally B
February 7, 2024 at 12:03 am
By your use of pronouns, do you reside in Florida? I ask because your use of pronouns seem to indicate otherwise. The irony …
Dont Say FLA
February 8, 2024 at 3:31 pm
Does anybody reside in Florida year round if they can help it? Even Flop Gov went north all summer and fall.
PeterH
February 6, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Independent voters and real conservatives ask why is more big brother government better government?
Nope
February 6, 2024 at 5:11 pm
If you know the whereabouts of any real conservatives, please let us know so we can add them to the endangered species list.
I don’t really care about the flag issue but this guy’s politics of distraction idiocy while destroying the state is sickening.
Dont Say FLA
February 8, 2024 at 3:33 pm
There’s one conservative in Wyoming. The other one’s in Illinois.
Dont Say FLA
February 8, 2024 at 3:30 pm
No rainbow or BLM flags, but Confederate Battle Flags are Fine. Right? I bet.
Comments are closed.