Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in typical fashion, revealed during a news conference Thursday he vetoed all of Florida’s public art grants last week because of a pair of events he deemed were “sexual festivals.”
DeSantis, 45, has governed over Florida with a heavy hand since he took office in 2018, directing and diverting state funds in bizarre ways—like spending more than a million in taxpayer dollars to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard for a political stunt in 2022.
Now, two events DeSantis claims were “sexual” have been blamed as the reason he vetoed $32 million in art grants statewide—funds the state legislature had already approve in Florida’s budget.
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The latest stunt has sent art organizations across the state scrambling, like the Tampa Museum of Art and Sarasota Opera, but DeSantis appeared to be unbothered by the headache on Thursday. Instead, he focused on scoring some political points with his base.
“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,” DeSantis said Thursday, without specifying what “stuff” he objected to.
“It’s like, how many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that? Not very many people would do that.”
The festival being referenced by DeSantis, the International Fringe Theater Festival, has been held annually for more than three decades in Orlando. It advertises itself as having live theater, concerts, and “kid friendly shows and activities.” The Orlando Sentinel reported in May that the festival’s performances “can get sexual—but always for a good reason and maximum comic effect.”
A similar festival is held annually in Tampa, the Tampa Bay Times reported, featuring “comedians, puppeteers, and other artists.”
DeSantis did not elaborate on why his dislike for the fringe festival should take funds away from attractions like Tampa’s zoo and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, both of which rely in part on state funding.
Previous budgets showed that the fringe festivals in Tampa and Orlando were among the organizations to receive the least funding from the state, the Times reported. And one of the festival’s organizers insisted Thursday that describing the events as sexual was a bunch of bull.
“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, the Orlando festival’s producer, said in a statement to the Times.
DeSantis has cracked down hard on drag shows in Florida and LGBTQ content in its schools. Along the way, he’s picked a fight with anyone in Florida who’s questioned his actions or tactics—infamously going to war against Disney for opposing him on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
In schools, he has also led a charge to ban hundreds of books, including some about LGBTQ people and Jackie Robinson, and initiated a public battle with the College Board over the contents of its AP African American History class. He’s also welcomed PragerU content into classrooms and given the OK on U.S. history curriculum that has taught Florida children that slavery brought “personal benefit” to Black people in the South.
Now, it appears, Florida’s arts scene may be next on the chopping block.
“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,” DeSantis said Thursday.
