A central Florida city is moving forward with plans to join the popular national Safe Place initiative protecting LGBTQ+ people and others, despite opposition from Republicans who consider it a “deceptive and coercive” political mandate.
Councilors in Mount Dora, a historic and eclectic small city famous for its antiques stores, art galleries and festivals, voted last month to affiliate with Safe Place, which seeks to give victims of hate crimes or bias a temporary shelter if they feel threatened.
The program began in Seattle in 2015 as a voluntary partnership between the police department and local businesses, which displayed rainbow stickers in the shape of a police badge to denote their participation. The effort has since been adopted in more than 350 cities nationwide, including dozens in Florida.
But four Republican state politicians from Lake county, in which Mount Dora sits, took exception to the city’s declaration, accusing the city in a letter last month of “virtue signaling”, and insisting they would explore “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to oppose a move they say contravenes “Biblical principles”.
“This local Safe Place program is negligent, irresponsible and divisive at best,” according to the letter signed by the Lake county legislative delegation, state representatives Taylor Yarkosky, Keith Truenow and Stan McClain, and state senator Dennis Baxley.
The four claim that the city is picking “winners and losers”, and warn small businesses they risk economic harm by turning off customers, citing recent rightwing boycotts of Target and Bud Lite for affiliating with the LGBTQ+ community.
Crissy Stile, the mayor of Mount Dora, told the Guardian the city would not be dissuaded by the politicians, who represent a county she said was “a little bit slower on the equality scale”.
“Mount Dora is very advanced, very inclusive, very safe already for all kinds of walks of life and beliefs, and Lake county is a little bit behind us,” she said.
“The political pushback doesn’t surprise me, but the actual wording of the letter did. It surprised me that they would take that step to make it so official, and to have all the legislators sign off on it.”
Stile said the city was moving ahead with its plan to seek accreditation by Safe Space, which has its headquarters in Seattle, as early as October. She added that she heard little criticism from the public.
“We haven’t had a lot of people that were really upset, and the ones that are, really, are just upset that the decal’s depiction of a safe place is a rainbow,” she said.
“To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a rainbow or a happy dog face, it’s just raising awareness for treating people with kindness and respect no matter who they are, what they believe in, what they feel or who they love.”
Michael Gibson, Mount Dora’s interim police chief, outlined the next steps for the program at a city council last week, at which members voted down a proposal to halt the process for review.
“I think that it’s an important beacon that when I look at it I’m not offended. As a conservative American it doesn’t offend me, not one bit,” Gibson told the council, according to WFTV News.
Gibson said his officers would receive training in dealing with victims of hate crimes, and that the design of the decal will be finalized at a later stage.
Yarkosky, the author of the letter, and self-declared constitutional conservative, did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. But he posted to X, formerly Twitter, a follow-up letter explaining why the original was sent.
“We simply want to know why the City of Mount Dora is seeking to force Seattle style political mandates on our small businesses,” he wrote. “We should be weary [sic] of deceptive and coercive mandates administered by local government that could have an opposite effect on public safety as well and [sic] put our small businesses at risk.”
Notably, the second letter was signed only by Yarkosky, and none of his colleagues. Baxley, when questioned by local journalists, appeared to backtrack a little, saying he wasn’t 100% familiar with the Mount Dora program or the intentions of city leaders.
“Our interest is strictly keeping the peace in Lake county,” he said, although, as the Republicans’ original letter to the city concedes, that has not been a problem before. “We had to go back over 12 years to find reports in your area regarding any such bigotry, prejudice or outright hate crimes being reported,” they wrote.
Stiles said none of the politicians had spoken to her directly, and she was not worried by threats of economic penalties.
“Our city’s not going to shut down if we don’t get our typical appropriation from Tallahassee that we ask for every year,” she said.
“We were lucky enough to be awarded half a million dollars for a repaving project in our downtown, and for that we’re thankful. But I don’t think the city falls apart if they do follow through with their threat of economic harm to our city.”
