Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com Click here and subscribe today.
In spite of political resistance and an atmosphere of threats targeting Central Florida drag queens, Space Coast Pride organizers said their street festival and parade last month were a success in downtown Melbourne — and they’ll do it again next year.
But Melbourne City Council Member Tim Thomas has led public criticism since the Sept. 24 gay-pride events, sparking hours of City Hall discussion. He particularly opposes the festival’s “drag queen story hour,” calling it “sexualized storytelling” that’s harmful to children.
Thomas has called for protests at future Space Coast Pride events and boycotts of event sponsors. He also said he will soon ask the Brevard legislative delegation to pursue state law prohibiting people younger than 18 from attending drag queen shows.
Lakoona Beach:Crystal Lagoon: Here’s what we know about proposed Melbourne ‘Lakoona Beach’ complex
FIT men’s rowing:Attorney: Florida Tech men’s rowers to sue school over elimination of their varsity sport
But Mayor Paul Alfrey — a fellow Republican who typically agrees with Thomas on most matters — has debated with Thomas, defending Space Coast Pride’s constitutional right to conduct special events. And other City Council members have offered little comment on Thomas’ criticisms.
Alfrey also engaged in a Facebook feud with Florida Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, before the festival after Fine called for City Hall officials to revoke the festival permit, without success. Their Facebook posts generated thousands of comments and reactions.
“Stop attacking our community. Stop attacking our organization,” Space Coast Pride President Justin Cercone said at the public-comment podium during Tuesday’s Melbourne City Council meeting.
“We, as an LGBTQ community, are not asking for anything else than to be treated equally,” Cercone said.
“In return for being treated equally, we bring you proven economic benefits, education and so much more, which is there to be discovered every day,” he said.
Space Coast Pride is Brevard County’s largest group representing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer community. The organization held its annual parade and festival on Sept. 24 in downtown Melbourne after outgrowing its former footprint in Eau Gallie. The event had been scrubbed the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since last month’s parade and festival, significant, unscheduled discussion on Space Coast Pride has occurred during all three City Council meetings since.
Before Tuesday’s meeting, roughly 40 Space Coast Pride supporters gathered outside City Hall. Some waved U.S. flags, a rainbow flag and a Florida flag to passing Strawbridge Avenue traffic, and the Space Coast LGBTA Democratic Caucus displayed a banner.
Space Coast Pride parade participants included some of Brevard County’s aerospace giants: SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Lockheed Martin.
Sponsors of the event included L3Harris, Northrop Grumman, Collins Aerospace, Bank of America and Truist.
Last month, Thomas encouraged residents to join “peaceful but loud protests” at future Space Coast Pride festivals and boycott its vendors and sponsors — “we hurt people in the pocketbook, and this goes away.”
Twin Cities:Sun Country Airlines to debut winter flights between Melbourne and Minneapolis-St. Paul
Economic development:Dassault Falcon Jet announces plan to create 400 new jobs at Melbourne airport facility
Melbourne Council member: ‘Sexualized storytelling’
Thomas criticized the festival’s “drag queen story time”; said the festival’s special-activity permit application lacked key details; and supports state legislation that would require attendees at drag-queen shows to be 18 or older.
He asked if Melbourne police officers could record festival activities using their body cams, and he also inquired about using drone surveillance.
“Families want their children to be protected. And exposing children to drag queens? It’s not inclusive. It’s perverted,” Thomas said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“Because it makes the sexuality of the reader the focus of the event, and not the stories that they are reading. And the purpose is to indoctrinate young children, through a visual presentation and interaction, to be gender-fluid and (to) question their biological sex,” Thomas said.
“The overwhelming majority of the residents that I have spoken to that have called me are against the city of Melbourne being used as a venue for this type of sexualized storytelling,” he said.
“So yes, I am absolutely going to do what whatever I can to protect our children from these types of grooming events,” he said.
Melbourne mayor cites First Amendment rights
Alfrey has countered that Space Coast Pride’s events are protected by the First Amendment. He said the organization paid City Hall for special-event services such as police patrols and traffic engineering, just like dozens of other groups do throughout the year.
“As mayor, I’m not going to see a group get vilified, or rumors made up or something — even when I don’t agree with some of the stuff they do,” Alfrey said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The Space Coast Pride group has the same constitutional rights as a religious group,” he said.
Alfrey told Thomas that, as Republicans, they both support parental choice.
“You and I, if we don’t want our child to go somewhere, they don’t go. I mean, the children didn’t get down there by Uber,” Alfrey said of Space Coast Pride attendees, drawing laughter from the audience.
Pride Parade and festival
On Sept. 24, Space Coast Pride organized an 11 a.m. parade leading from the Melbourne Auditorium to the New Haven Avenue corridor, where a downtown street festival took place from noon to 6 p.m.
Admission was free. Festival attendance was estimated to reach 13,000 people with a peak of 5,000 at any given time, according to the special-activity permit application. A “free speech zone” for protesters was designated with cones and barricades at Melbourne Court and New Haven Avenue, and a handful of protesters attended.
The festival included three “drag queen story time” sessions where costumed performers read children’s books to the audience from a small stage for five to 10 minutes, said Tina Jensen, Space Coast Pride communications director.
The festival generated one arrest. An intoxicated 68-year-old Cocoa man was charged with an array of offenses after he spit on a man’s arm near the Flatiron Building, resisted arrest, kicked a Melbourne police officer while being placed in a patrol vehicle, and kicked a police officer in the forehead at Holmes Regional Medical Center, an arrest affidavit said.
The man was charged with two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of resisting arrest, battery and disorderly intoxication. Prosecutors later dropped charges of threatening a law enforcement officer, marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Violent threats against drag queens
During Tuesday’s meeting, Cercone was among 24 speakers expressing support for the Space Coast Pride festival and its drag queens. Three speakers at the public-comment podium opposed the event.
Tuesday’s Melbourne City Hall discussion occurred the day after LGBT+ Center Orlando canceled its Drag Queen Story Hour “Halloween Edition” that was scheduled for Saturday, citing threats from hate groups including neo-Nazis.
“We take these threats very seriously and would not want to endanger or expose children and their parents and guardians to bigotry and hate,” LGBT+ Center Orlando officials said in a Facebook post.
“We have the support of so many in our community including law enforcement, but as much as we would like to continue this fun-loving, innocent event, we feel that the safety of our community is our number one concern,” the post said.
Special event permits to be examined
During Tuesday’s meeting, Thomas said the Space Coast Pride festival permit application lacked information on parking, vendors, portable restrooms, entertainment and other details.
Thomas proposed a series of guidelines intended to tighten compliance within the city event planning process — but other council members cited fears of unintended consequences without further research. His motion failed by a 5-2 vote, with Alfrey joining him in voting yes.
Afterward, Council Member Debbie Thomas then moved to ask City Hall staffers to examine how the city can tighten up the planning and processing of event applications, then return to City Council for further discussion. That motion passed by a 6-1 vote, with Tim Thomas voting no.
In a Friday email, City Manager Shannon Lewis told council members that the special-event application discussion will occur Dec. 13. She also distributed copies of an August 2017 city attorney’s opinion on First Amendment considerations for parades.
That opinion was authored amid 2017 debate over groups that displayed Confederate flags during city-funded parades.
In a letter to Fine before last month’s Space Coast Pride festival, Lewis said the city’s special-activity permitting provisions are designed to comply with constitutional requirements “on a content and viewpoint neutral basis” — and there was no legal basis for the city to revoke the permit.
No adult-entertainment violations
Eight public speakers criticized the Space Coast Pride events during the past three City Council meetings, and some raised allegations of illicit and lewd behavior.
But Police Chief David Gillespie told council members last month that a combination of his officers and Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputies monitored the festival, and no arrests were made for violating the adult-entertainment ordinance.
During the Sept. 27 meeting, Vice Mayor Julie Sanders publicly asked residents to email her videos showing Space Coast Pride questionable activities for City Hall review. As of Friday, she said she had not received any videos.
West Melbourne Council Member Daniel McDow is president of the Space Coast LGBTA Democratic Caucus. During Tuesday’s meeting, he called for “cultural cohesion, not cultural division” and said this is about freedom of expression.
“This is about the Constitution. Many young men and women have lost limbs and life fighting on foreign soil for people who knew little to nothing about them,” McDow said.
“And yet, we’re bickering over drag queens reading books,” he said.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: @RickNeale1
Support local journalism. Subscribe today.
