For free-speech sake, let controversial lawmaker ride in Pride Parade — and be booed again | Opinion
Oftentimes, the last thing Americans want to think about when we’re angry, hurt, threatened — politically divided and entrenched in our beliefs — is our biggest treasure: the First Amendment.
But the case of Republican state Rep. Fabian Basabe and his desire to participate in the Miami Beach Pride Parade — where he isn’t wanted — is testing the free-speech beliefs of the event’s host city, organizers and the LGBTQ+ community.
There’s no question that Basabe, who ran on a pro-gay platform but voted for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ slate of anti-gay and anti-trans measures, has infuriated his constituents in a district that’s home to one of Florida’s largest gay communities.
He’s an ineffective legislator whose bills either died in subcommittees or were withdrawn last session.
Accused by two employees of sexual harassment and unwanted touching in a lawsuit, a law firm hired by the Florida House of Representatives to investigate the claims said in the report that while allegations couldn’t be substantiated, Basabe “likely should exercise better judgment regarding observing the delicate margins between the personal and professional with his subordinates (and their friends) in the future.”
In the midst of this scandal, I wrote that a pattern of unacceptable conduct had emerged and Basabe, better suited for his old job as a reality-show star, should resign or be forced to, as has happened with other legislators over unethical misbehavior. But House Speaker Paul Renner and other GOP leaders remained silent. His seat could easily flip back to Democrats. He’s up for re-election this year.
Basabe, booed and humiliated during the last Pride Parade, insists he’s pro-gay and misunderstood.
He wants a return performance.
First Amendment law
If this were a privately organized event, Basabe would have no right to be there if organizers don’t want him.
But at a public event sponsored by Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami Beach — though the private, non-profit Miami Beach Gay Pride, Inc., (MBGP) executes it — the free speech principle would most likely be upheld by a court, says one of Florida’s top experts in the field, Thomas R. Julin.
First Amendment law history is on Basabe’s side, Julin said.
He cited the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc., in which organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which the city had turned over to a private entity to run, refused to allow LGBT groups to participate.
Gay rights advocates sued citing state law that prohibited public accommodations from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Massachusetts courts rejected the argument that the law prohibiting discrimination infringed on the First Amendment rights of the gay rights advocates. But the Supreme Court disagreed.
Miami Beach’s parade has a similar arrangement to Boston’s, so it “would not be able to exclude participants in the parade on the basis of the content of their speech, unless compelling interests provided a justification for that.”
MBGP chair Bruce Horwich told Basabe in a text, the Herald reported, that his presence violates the nonprofit’s “bylaws which state that we can’t have participants that put themselves or other participants at risk or antagonize our guests.”
But Julin says those bylaws “might be regarded as infringing on Basabe’s First Amendment rights if it is being applied to exclude him merely because his speech antagonizes observers of the parade or other participants in the parade” with public sponsorship and funding in play.
Organizers may have a tough, costly time fighting Basabe.
The fight isn’t worth it, days from the April 14 parade.
Basabe may insist on being in a parade for a community he has antagonized and betrayed. But that will no doubt become clear to him if he ventures out in his convertible.
Free speech is for all. And that includes booing.
