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Is Winter Garden counter-programming LGBTQ+ Pride Month?
At its May 28 city commission meeting, Mayor John Rees issued a proclamation, declaring June “Faith and Family Month in Winter Garden.”
In his proclamation, Rees said, “Faith is not just a cornerstone, but the very foundation of the Winter Garden community, providing the moral compass of strength, hope and guidance for most of its residents.” And he nodded to Father’s Day, which “acknowledges fathers’ role as pillars and the bedrock of strength, wisdom and leadership for their family …”
Similar proclamations have popped up in Clearwater, Lake Wales and Marion County. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that “without directly saying the idea was to replace Pride,” conservative governors in Utah, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana have refocused June as “Nuclear Family Month" and “Strong Families Month.”
Rees told VoxPopuli that he was unaware of any connection with a larger conservative movement.
“I haven’t a clue about that. I never heard of that,” he said in a phone call.
Despite requests, particularly in 2022 and 2023 when the anti-LGBTQ bills were moving through the state legislature, Winter Garden has never issued a proclamation or statement of support for its LGBTQ community. By contrast, Oakland, the city’s neighbor about a half-mile to the west, has issued four annual Pride Proclamations, starting in 2023.
Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director for Equality Florida, told VoxPopuli that the effort to refocus June was a "newer phenomenon" from conservatives. "I haven’t heard of this in prior years.” But Maurer added, “The far right doesn’t have a monopoly on faith or family. We have many religious communities that embrace their LGBTQ members and many LGBTQ people who choose to build loving families in the state. We have always felt that civil rights are not a limited pie here, so recognizing one community or one thing does not detract from others.”
LGBTQ+ Pride is celebrated in June to mark the 1969 Stonewall Uprising — six days of protests when gay men and allies stood against police brutality after the June 28, 1969, police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The protests are considered the start of the gay rights movement. The first Pride celebrations began a year later in 1970.
Other communities and ideas are also recognized in June. According to the National Day Calendar, June is Men’s Health Month, Caribbean-American Heritage Month, National Portuguese Heritage Month, African-American Music Month, National Candy Month, Zoo and Aquarium Month, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, National Adopt-A-Cat Month and National Accordion Month, among others.
