FL Rejects Pride Lights For Ringling Bridge, Sunshine Skyway

SARASOTA, FL — State transportation officials rejected rainbow-colored lighting on various bridges around Florida, including the Ringling Causeway Bridge in Sarasota, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that connects Manatee and Pinellas counties, and the Acosta Bridge in Jacksonville, for LGBTQ Pride month.

Despite this initial rejection, Sarasota Mayor Hagen Brody told Patch that he’s hopeful that Florida Department of Transportation officials, who turned down the requests, will change their mind for the Ringling Causeway Bridge in time for Saturday’s fifth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

In an email to Patch, Brody wrote, “FDOT is still considering the request after initially denying it. Hoping to have a final answer before tomorrow night (Pulse anniversary.)”

Earlier this month, the FDOT ordered the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to turn off its Pride month lighting of the Acosta Bridge in downtown Jacksonville, WUSF reported. After receiving backlash for the decision, though, the FDOT allowed the colorful lights to go back on at the bridge Tuesday.

In light of the FDOT revisiting the matter Jacksonville, Brody asked the agency to reconsider its decision for the Ringling Causeway Bridge.

“I’m writing to ask that you reconsider FDOT’s position on our request to light the Ringling Bridge as we continue to celebrate our diversity through the remainder of pride month. It is not too late to help us publicly show that our LGBTQ community is important and welcome in our community,” the mayor wrote to L.K. Nandam, the FDOT’s District One secretary, Wednesday.

Brody added, “However symbolic it maybe, it is evident that it will have deep significance for many in our community and in my view is also a matter of broad community interest for us in the City of Sarasota.”

The last two years, the city of St. Petersburg requested that the state light up the Sunshine Skyway in rainbow colors but was turned down, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The city of Sarasota, whose commissioners signed the city’s first-ever proclamation declaring June LGBTQ Pride month Monday, similarly requested that the state light the Ringling Causeway Bridge in rainbow colors this year and were turned down.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that there was no implicit message behind denying the lighting requests, the Herald-Tribune reported.

"I think (FDOT is) just doing it based on code, I don't think they're getting involved in any messaging on that," DeSantis said.

A spokesperson for his office, Taryn Fenske, also tweeted that the governor’s office wasn’t involved in the decision.

According to the FDOT’s bridge lighting policy, provided to Patch by the city of Sarasota, “Lighting colors and sequences shall be limited to preprogrammed themes developed with the lighting system plans during project development. New themes will be limited to the recognition, commemoration and/or promotion of federal or state holidays or celebrations. The lighting display will be decided by the department.”

The policy also states that “on bridges located on the state or federal system with lighting systems capable of special lighting displays, maintained and operated by a county or local government, special requests for lighting colors and sequences shall be limited to the recognition, commemoration, or promotion of federal or state holidays or celebrations, and events of broad community interest and significance approved by county or local governments. Requests meeting these parameters will be considered and will be on a first come basis. The department reserves the right to refuse any request it deems offensive or not in the best public interest.”

Nikki Fried, a prominent Democrat and state agriculture commissioner who is running for governor in 2022, admonished DeSantis and his administration.

In a letter she sent to DeSantis, which she also shared on her Twitter account, Fried lambasted the denial of Pride lighting, as well as the recent anti-trans bill the governor signed into law on June 1, the first day of LGBTQ Pride month.

“You may choose not to recognize that your administration’s homophobic, transphobic actions exacerbate the discrimination the LGBTQ+ community continues to face…As governor, it is your moral and constitutional responsibility to serve all Floridians, not only those whose antediluvian predilections you share,” she wrote.