Republican who supported “Don’t Say Gay” law sues Pride parade for barring his participation

Former reality TV performer-turned-Florida state Rep. Fabián Basabe (R) is threatening to sue Miami Beach Pride if they don’t allow him to ride in their annual parade, which will be held on April 14. When Basabe rode in last year’s parade, attendees booed and heckled him over his support of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and a statewide drag ban.

When Basabe tried to reserve a space in this year’s parade, organizers forbade him from participating. Basabe’s lawsuit accuses parade organizers of violating his First Amendment rights to free speech, but organizers say they can legally decide who to include in their parade and claimed they declined Basabe’s reservation out of security concerns. Supreme Court precedent seems to side with the parade organizers.

Related:

21 viciously anti-LGBTQ+ bills die in Florida as DeSantis influence wanes

They were some of the most extreme laws proposed this year.

“We can’t risk having you in the parade this year,” Bruce Horwich, chairman of the nonprofit organization behind the parade, told Basabe in a March 16 text message, according to The Miami Herald. “Last year you had to be surrounded by police officers in riot gear as well as had several more plain clothes officers surrounding your vehicle.”

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

“We have had Republicans, Democrats, and Independent parties in our parade and festival in the past and welcome all political views unless they are planning or have shown from the past that they are a security risk,” Horwich added. “Our bylaws clearly state that we can’t have participants that put themselves or other participants at risk or antagonize our guests.”

Basabe responded, writing, “You have no right to exclude me, not as an individual nor as an elected official, nor may you attempt to set me up again with a bogus ‘public safety claim.’ I have always attended this parade peacefully.” He also accused organizers of allowing “extremist” protesters “to agitate the crowds and incite violence against me for political purposes” during last year’s parade.

Basabe’s lawyer, Kent Harrison Robbins, sent a March 29 letter to Horwich stating that Horwich and his organization are “willfully, knowingly, and intentionally abridging [Basabe’s] First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assemble on a public street.”

“Legal precedents from the federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have ruled that a concern that there may be physical opposition to [Basabe] is not a legal justification for violating his speech and assembly rights,” Robbins added.

However, a 1995 Supreme Court decision suggests that the organizers have a constitutional right to exclude anyone whose political views they disagree with. In the case of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, the court ruled that the group that organizes Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade wasn’t required to let an LGB group participate.

Even though the parade seemed more of a civic event than a private one, since the city granted a permit and access for the organizers to use city streets, the Supreme Court ruled, “Private citizens organizing a public demonstration may not be compelled by the state to include groups who impart a message the organizers do not want to be included in their demonstration.”

The ruling wasn’t essentially anti-gay because it works both ways: If an anti-gay group wanted to join a city’s Pride parade, the city would have to defer the decision to the parade organizers, who could then deny the group without any fear of being successfully sued.

During his 2022 election campaign, Basabe campaigned as a moderate who supports LGBTQ+ rights. However, he voted in favor of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which forbids schools from discussing LGBTQ+ issues. Basabe also voted in favor of banning children from seeing drag performances.

Basabe said the media and local LGBTQ+ groups have failed to highlight the work he has done in legislative committees to stop anti-LGBTQ+ bills from becoming law.

Basabe, who is married to a woman but has avoided questions about his sexual orientation, was accused of sexual harassment last July by two of his former male staffers. Basabe denied any wrongdoing. His attorney in that case, Robert Fernandez, called the resulting lawsuit “frivolous and meritless” and said that the politician wouldn’t be “giving it any more public attention than it deserves — which is none.”