LGBTQ Activists Protest Ringling Bridge Pride Lighting Denial

SARASOTA, FL — After the Florida Department of Transportation denied the city of Sarasota’s request to light the Ringling Causeway Bridge in rainbow colors for LGBTQ Pride month, a group of activists took matters into their own hands.

About 60 protestors from several local organizations, including animal rights group Vegang, the Harvey Milk Festival, the local chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Leaders Rights Organization, marched across the bridge Saturday evening.

The group honored the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando five years ago, and protested the state’s decision not to light the bridge for Pride month.

When they reached the halfway point along the bridge, the group poured eco-friendly colored corn starch over the side to create a stream of color.

Traci Lipton, an animal rights activist and a founder of Vegang, was inspired to organize the march after reading about the state of Florida refusing the city’s lighting request.

“They can turn the bridge red, white, and blue; they can turn the bridge red and green; but it’s just too hard to do rainbow colors? That’s bulls***,” Lipton said. “I said, ‘F*** them. I want to do something to help. I’m going to do a march to light it up myself.”

Like what you're reading? Invite a friend to subscribe to free Sarasota newsletters and real-time email alerts.

She invited other activist leaders in the Sarasota area to join her and pulled together the protest in just under a week.

In addition to pouring colorful corn starch off the bridge, members of the group spoke about their personal experiences and read the names of the 49 Pulse victims.

“It was just so awesome. Our heart was so full by the time it was over,” Lipton said. “There were tears in my mind (Sunday morning) thinking about what we accomplished this week.”

Shannon Fortner, founder and executive director of the Harvey Milk Festival, said the state’s denial of lighting the Ringling bridge “was kind of a slap in the face,” especially after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an anti-trans bill targeting transgender female athletes June 1, the first day of LGBTQ Pride month.

DeSantis also pulled funding for mental health services for Pulse survivors says before the shooting’s fifth anniversary, she said.

When making budget cuts June 3, he removed $900,000 for programs for LGBTQ Floridians, The Hill Reported. Some of this funding was earmarked for mental health programs for Pulse survivors.

“It’s a reminder of why (the) 2022 (gubernatorial election) is going to be so important for us,” Fortner said. “It’s really hard to create change with a politician that’s really taken such a stance.”

Sarasota Mayor Hagen Brody pushed back against FDOT’s decision to not light the Ringling Causeway Bridge for Pride month, emailing L.K. Nandam, the FDOT's District One secretary, Wednesday to ask him to reconsider.

“It is not too late to help us publicly show that our LGBTQ community is important and welcome in our community,” Brody wrote. "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."

A spokesperson for the city of Sarasota told Patch that the FDOT secretary will revisit and discuss the request and the agency’s bridge-lighting policy at a Tuesday meeting.