Posted on 07/02/2024 4:36:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has given the public some clarity on his veto last week of $32 million in arts and culture grants from next year’s state budget.
According to a story published in the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis said the cause was Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, which he characterized as being overtly “sexual” and therefore an inappropriate recipient of state funds.
While it’s unclear if the Orlando festival was slated to receive any money from the grants, the state of Florida awards money for cultural projects based on a ranked list. The Fringe Festival was ranked toward the bottom. DeSantis said the event should spur Florida lawmakers to reevaluate how state money is spent.
“You have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” the Governor said at a press conference, adding later that “when I see money being spent that way, I have to be the one to stand up for taxpayers and say, you know what, that is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”
“In referring to the fringe as a ‘sexual’ festival, he incorrectly characterized our festival and misrepresented our contributions to the arts community, locally, nationally and internationally,” Tempestt Halstead, producer of the Orlando Fringe Festival, said in a statement. Halstead said the festival was one of 200 such events around the world that are “contributing to a global movement of artistic expression and cultural exchange.”
Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani of Orlando said this year’s festival was not “sexual,” though she noted that it “does feature drag queens and other forms of artistic expression that DeSantis has wanted to censor despite courts telling him otherwise!”
In 2023, lawmakers asked to ban drag shows that allow children and stop venues from admitting children to adult live performances. That proposed legislation was blocked by a federal judge due to violating First Amendment rights, a decision that was later bolstered by the Supreme Court.
Among the institutions affected by DeSantis’s culture funding veto were the Tampa Museum of Art and the Orlando Museum of Art.
Hear, Hear.
You just have to read the push-back on this to realize that he made the right decision.
“Putin 2028”
The way Ukraine is going for the Neocons, that may just be the case.
“you are saying he is a deep state plant?”
Absolutely, but I’ll still credit him when he kicks butt in Florida. But for the top job who knows who he will be up against, they may be just as compromised.
There was no ability to line item veto projects.... It was all or nothing.
The legislature can fix this. Easily.
Running in 2024 was just an excuse for hating him. Conservatives like DeSantis aren’t liked because they have the cajones to stand against this cultural rot. He posed a threat to their Bud Light and Hannah Montana reruns on Disney+
Good. The weirdo crowd has completely taken over the so-called arts, and money that could have gone for good local events was being siphoned off into weird sexual-politics stuff.
Take a break from it and review what gets to apply for funding in the first place.
Governor isn’t up in 2028.
Fringe Theater would have likely equaled
Cringe Theater, with wall to wall Pride & Drag Queens or Pro-Pali, Pro DEI brands of Hate against Jews, White Males & USA.
Actual examples artistic creativity would have been smothered by all that annoying virtue signalling.
Maybe you should ask someone who lives there.
That was political talk.
Desantis was his number one threat. So yes.
The purpose of art is to cause a reaction and with this purpose it can create a synergy of change; change in attitudes, perceptions, and thoughts.” –
https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2015/why-arts-matter
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/opinion/arts-funding.html
The writers have a clever idea to camouflage cultural funding by equating it with highway building and maintenance. I applaud their ingenuity: Fixing a leaky roof is less controversial than supporting the art on the walls or the movie screens below.
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