Tallahassee Mayor Nixes LGBTQ+ Advisory Council Meeting During Pride Month

Tallahassee city leaders have indefinitely postponed this month’s meeting of the LGBTQ+ Advisory Council. Furthermore, there’s no sign it will make it on the calendar before the end of Pride Month.

Shutting out any advice from the committee comes not only during a month that is meant to celebrate LGBTQ+ experiences but also as a wave of transphobic laws goes into effect in Florida.

The cancellation prompted the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to equality, to lash out at local elected officials.

“Mayor John Dailey and other officials have shamelessly used the LGBTQ+ community when it is politically convenient, yet they refuse to take concrete actions to support and protect our community members from hate speech and discriminatory actions,” reads a press release issued by the progressive group.

Tallahassee CAC President Delilah Pierre said the city needs to hear from queer voices now more than ever. Tallahassee serves as Florida’s capital city, and protests regularly raged outside the state Capitol protesting the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. But that stopped little as lawmakers passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed restrictions on trans medical care for children and even many adults, segregation of public bathrooms based on gender assigned at birth, an expansion of Florida’s controversial “don’t say gay” law. and other laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the state.

“We just did a legislative session here were queer and transgender people were actively under attack,” Pierre said. “I think the city needs to hear the grievances of queer and trans people living in the state of Florida. But it should also discuss real substantial steps the city can take to blunt and obstruct impacts the of these laws in Tallahassee.”

The group referenced several recent scandals within the city that all signal an unwelcoming environment for queer people.

That included a car repair shop in town recently taunted the LGBTQ+ community during Pride month with a sign that read: “Veterans get a day f***** and child molesters get a month why.”

The release referenced community outrage at the hiring of Lawrence Revell. The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division launched a probe last year to investigate claims of the police chief discriminating against a female employee in part for her sexual orientation, according to local website Our Tallahassee.

Mayor John Dailey, a Democrat, was first elected mayor of Tallahassee in 2018 and re-elected in November. He succeeded progressive Mayor Andrew Gillum, who later came out as bisexual. Dailey has faced criticism from progressives throughout the duration of his time in office.

Dailey has not responded to a request for comment from The Advocate about the decision to postpone the meeting.