Naples Pride has sued the city of Naples after the Florida municipality ramped up security costs for this year’s event. City officials said opposition to the event at meetings prompted the city’s actions and that there would likely be excessive protests at the event in the midst of rising anti-transgender sentiment in Florida.
The lawsuit, which is backed by the ACLU of Florida, challenges a city decision to deny a special event permit at an outdoor park. The legal action has come after the Naples event, which launched in 2017, was forced indoors last year because of Florida’s anti-drag law threatening live performances with sexual conduct that can be viewed by minors.
Naples officials this year said the organization would need to pay $36,000 in security costs to host the event, far more than other events of the same size.
According to Callie Soldavini, an attorney for Naples Pride, organizers last year were told they would need to pay more than $44,000 if drag performers were allowed to perform.
“Those fees are absolutely skyrocketed from where we were charged just a couple of thousands when we started this in 2017,” she said.
ACLU attorneys say that’s not just expensive. It’s illegal.
“Before the City, emboldened by anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, imposed unconstitutional burdens on Pridefest, Naples Pride was able to feature its family-friendly drag performance without issue for years,” said Samantha Past, the ACLU of Florida’s LGBTQ+ rights attorney. “The First Amendment ensures that viewpoint and content-based discrimination cannot infringe on freedom of speech and expression. Drag is an art form that holds great significance to the LGBTQ+ community both as a form of social commentary and celebration. Drag is constitutionally protected, even if someone doesn’t like it.”
Naples Pride organizers have worked in recent months to raise the massive amount required to go ahead as planned with the event, which is scheduled for June 7 at Cambier Park. The event notably allowed children age 12 and younger in for free.
Soldavini said the event this year plans to celebrate the art of drag with no inhibition, following court decisions to block Florida’s anti-drag law. The U.S. Supreme Court in November ruled the controversial state statute cannot be enforced.
Just last week, Naples Pride held a gala that raised nearly $50,000 for the event before proceeds from ticket sales.
Meanwhile, drag performer Miss Minnie Bouvèé has been crowdfunding for Naples Pride now for months as she rallies LGBTQ entertainers to the cause.
“As a drag queen and activist that fought SB 1438 in Florida, I was drawn to help because of the city restrictions that have been imposed for them to continue with Pride,” Bouvèé said. For example, no drag queens in public spaces, all performances have to admit 18 years of age and older (eliminating, and in fact, not factoring in gay families), while also dramatically increasing their security fees into the tens of thousands. I firmly believe this will likely be the first of many Prides under this administration that will face these kinds of uphill battles to just exist within a conservative city.”
Naples city officials said opposition to the event at meetings prompted the city’s actions and that there would likely be excessive protests at the event in the midst of rising anti-transgender sentiment in Florida. Notably, Soldavini said that while opposition showed up at city hearings over two days to challenge the permit, only about a dozen protesters showed up at last year’s Pride events. Those who did were mostly non-violent, holding public prayers and quietly protesting the event.
Bouvèé said it is wrong for the city to try and charge so much for Pride when other events don’t face the same economic barriers.
“When seeking their permit, the city Council said there was an overwhelming opposition from the community of Naples to have Pride,” Bouvèé said. “The aforementioned ‘opposition’ was said to have arrived in forms of numerous emails. Those emails are public record. The city handed over 40 emails, only 10 of which were actually complaints about Pride. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the city is stacking the odds to ultimately try and eliminate Naples Pride from even happening.”
The lawsuit filed on Friday said it was wrong that Naples officials caved to anti-trans activists. It noted that Naples Pride in 2023 was forced to hold drag performances indoors, which accommodated a fraction of audiences in prior years.
“Forcing the show indoors—as if it were something shameful—undermined the performance’s intended message of acceptance and living as an LGBTQ+ person openly and without fear,” the lawsuit states. “Moreover, the reduced ticket sales caused a serious blow to Naples Pride’s fundraising and its ability to attract top tier performing talent.”
Naples Pride intends to hold performances outdoors on a mainstage in the park again, but the city said it cannot do so, despite Florida’s anti-grad law being on hold. The City also asked Naples Pride not to allow anyone under 18 into the event, but organizers stressed this has always been a family-friendly gathering. That predates the law Florida passed that cited the protection of children as its chief motivation.
“We make entertainment for everybody in every age range,” Soldavini said. “We have a children's zone with face painting and games and a ball pit, and then we have tons and tons and tons of vendors.”
But while the Pride event in Naples has tried to be a welcoming and festive affair, the roots of Pride remain in protest. Organizers say if the city forces them to fight for their legal right to provide representation for the LGBTQ community in Florida, they are ready for battle.
“We are a protest,” Soldavini said. "We certainly always have been, but having a Pride celebration is a protest.”
Organizers have no intention of letting the city’s tactics stop the event.
"We made a promise to our entire community—that we would not stop fighting until we could all celebrate together, free, as a whole with a full heart; today, we are fulfilling that promise," said Cori Craciun, executive director of Naples Pride, in a statement.
Soldavani said the city could make all things easier if it looked to assist a community seeking to express itself instead of catering to the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.
“A lot of times we feel that City Council and the Naples Police Department are looking at us with annoyance,” Soldavani said. “Why are you here again? Why are you asking us to do these things that make us uncomfortable and that make this community and the people that are in opposition to what Pride stands for, and that are members of registered hate groups and that are Christian nationalists, you make them come here and you stir up all of these things that don't represent what our community is.
“Instead of looking at us and saying we feel that we're the annoyance and we're the problem, when all we're doing is asking to celebrate our celebration as we have done since 2017 in a manner that we have the constitutional right to and we are only expressing our constitutional rights, we're only asking for those to be respected and enforced. Instead, we do feel that so many members of City Council are looking at us like we're the problem, and that's not the case.”
Contributions for Naples Pride are being collected on its website.
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