DJ Mafumix, aka Matthew Sweeney, plays for the crowd during the 5th Annual Naples Pride Fest. The event held at Cambier Park in Downtown Naples on Saturday, June 10, 2023. It celebrated the LGBTQ community and provided music, entertainment, food and vendor merchandise for the attending public.
The municipal government of Naples, Florida has refused to grant Naples Pride an event permit, citing increased security costs due to a probable rise in anti-transgender protests. The city also asked event organizers not to allow admittance to anyone under 18 years of age — so, Naples Pride is now suing the city government. The all-ages event is scheduled for June 7.
The city told event organizers that they’d need to pay $36,000 for security, much more than what’s required for similarly sized events or what had been charged annually since the event began in 2017, Advocate reported. The city based its cost on the number of anti-trans commenters who spoke at a two-day city hearing in opposition to an event permit.
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Callie Soldavini, an attorney for Naples Pride, noted that the city tried to charge event organizers $44,000 last year if the event featured drag performers. Florida passed a drag ban in 2023, though federal courts overturned it as an unconstitutional violation of free speech. (The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the case.) To avoid the fee, last year’s Pride event held its drag performances indoors, which limited the number of attendees.
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Soldavini added that only about a dozen protesters showed up at last year’s Pride events; the protesters were “mostly non-violent, holding public prayers and quietly protesting the event,” the aforementioned publication reported.
“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 organizers’ lawsuit stated. “Moreover, the reduced ticket sales caused a serious blow to Naples Pride’s fundraising and its ability to attract top-tier performing talent.”
This year, event organizers plan on holding its main performances in an outdoor stage in a local park. However, the city has requested that no one under the age of 18 be allowed to see the performances. Organizers have refused, stating that all the performances will be family-friendly.
“We’re only asking for [our constitutional rights] to be respected and enforced.”
Callie Soldavini, an attorney for Naples Pride
“A lot of times we feel that City Council and the Naples Police Department are looking at us with annoyance,” Soldavani said, pointing out that the event makes some community members uncomfortable and attracts “members of registered hate groups” and “Christian nationalists” who “stir up all of these things that don’t represent what our community is.”
“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,” Soldavani said. “We’re only asking for those to be respected and enforced.”
Event organizers have already raised $50,000 to hold the event. Their lawsuit is being represented in court by members of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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