Bill Carlson nomination sparks LGBTQ opposition

Tampa City Council member Bill Carlson’s announced intent to nominate local Young Republican leader Jake Hoffman to a city advisory board has roused objections from local gay rights activists, centering on an anti-“grooming” video Hoffman used in a political campaign.

That move, plus Carlson’s repeated stances on the Council against what he calls wasteful spending by the Jane Castor administration, have also roused speculation that he’s looking to build conservative support for a 2027 run for Mayor.

Carlson told the Council on Sept. 12 he intended to nominate Hoffman as his appointee to the citizen advisory board on budget and finance.

Hoffman, who runs a digital advertising company, is the former President and now Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans. He ran for the House in 2022, losing in a Primary to Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman.

During his campaign, he produced a video titled “Stop Grooming Our Kids” as a campaign ad and social media post. In the video, a man wearing a rainbow-themed Mickey Mouse T-shirt confronts a mother and young daughter on the street and says the girl needs to learn about “the joys of the rainbow” in case she is “trans” and that “the mouse has some great children’s programming.”

Hoffman steps in and says, “We don’t do that in Florida anymore. … We leave it up to the parents.”

Luis Salazar, Chair of the local Democratic Party’s LGBTQ+ caucus, said the video in effect “called our LGBTQ community groomers,” and said it’s “disheartening” that “someone who spews hate would be given a position of responsibility in our city government.”

He said he has urged Carlson to choose another nominee and has written to Council members on the subject, which he called “nonnegotiable.”

In an interview, Hoffman said the video “has nothing to do with me being anti-LGBTQ,” and was intended to buttress the controversial 2022 Parental Rights in Education bill pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and called the “Don’t Say Gay” law by opponents.

“They’re looking for something to attack me on,” Hoffman said. “It’s pure politics.”

He noted that the interloper in the ad was played by a gay man, David Leatherwood, a conservative pro-Trump social media influencer who opposes what he calls excesses of the gay rights movement. Hoffman said the YR’s group has participated in gay pride parades while he has been its leader and was one of the first Republican groups to support equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“The idea that I’m anti-LGBTQ, anybody that knows me would think that’s ridiculous,” he said.

In an interview this week, Carlson denied that he has chosen Hoffman, and said he had merely asked Hoffman to help him find a fiscal conservative for the position.

“When I nominate someone their name will be on the agenda. If I had a name I would have put it on the agenda already,” he said.

However, he told the Council at the close of their Sept. 12 meeting that he wanted “to let you all know I’ve asked Jake Hoffman, who many of you may know,” to replace a committee retiree and would put the appointment on the agenda.

He said Hoffman had already filled out the application and, “We just need to cross the T’s and dot the I’s.”

Carlson also noted that the founders of the public relations firm he heads, Tucker/Hall Inc., “are both part of the LGBTQ community.” And he emphasized his credentials as a fiscal conservative, citing his opposition to a number of big-ticket administration projects.

Carlson and Salazar both suggested the controversy was cooked up by their political opponents in city hall’s current climate of conflict between the council and Mayor Castor’s administration, and amid widespread speculation about the 2027 Mayor’s race.

Carlson, a Democrat, is considered a likely 2027 candidate, and one of his leading opponents could be former Mayor Bob Buckhorn — also a Democrat but known as conservative with strong business community ties.

In last year’s Council race, Buckhorn and Castor, also a Democrat, backed Carlson’s opponent, Republican Blake Casper, for the nonpartisan seat, leading to censures from the local Democratic Party.