Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said he cut $32 million in arts funds because some local theater festivals have “sexual” content.
Axios Miami says that DeSantis turned down the money earlier this month. He said that the cuts were necessary because of “sexual” festivals at a news conference on Thursday.
“Your tax money is going to things like the Fringe Festival, which is kind of like a sexual festival where all this stuff is going on,” DeSantis said.
“I can’t sell the Fringe Festival to taxpayers, and I don’t want to try.”
People who run and have been to the Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, on the other hand, don’t agree.
The website for the May event says that it will have live music, concerts, and “kid-friendly shows and activities.”
Anna Eskamani, a Democrat and state representative, said the event isn’t sexual and gave another reason why the governor took the money away.
She told The Miami-Herald, “It does have drag queens and other forms of art that DeSantis has wanted to censor even though the courts have told him not to.”
The Supreme Court said last year that Florida could not apply a law that would limit drag shows. The bill that DeSantis pushed for would have made it a misdemeanor for a venue to let a child into a show that was sexually explicit or obscene for their age.
The recent veto on arts funds also affects a number of cultural groups, many of which work with Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center lost more than $70,000 and the state’s Holocaust Memorial Committee lost $47,000. More than $700,000 is being lost by Jewish community groups across the state.
According to the Sun Sentinel, more than $20,000 was taken away from the World AIDS Museum.
The artistic head of the Florida theater company Gablestage, Bari Newport, said that budget cuts like these can kill groups.
Newport told The Miami-Herald, “Depending on the size of the organization, it’s either fatal or more than just an inconvenience.”
There was a lot of anger toward DeSantis when he signed the “Don’t Say Climate Law” last month.
A lot of the word “climate” is taken out of Florida state law by the law that starts on July 1. It also loosens rules on gas pipelines and gets rid of state grant programs that promoted using green energy.
Source: Independent
