Florida city cancels St. Patrick's Day parade, citing new anti-DEI law

One of the first casualties of a new Florida law that prohibits taxpayer dollars from going toward diversity initiatives is a St.Patrick's Day parade in a beach town that has been celebrating its Irish American community for nearly 60 years.The city of Delray Beach announced this week that it was canceling its popular St.

Patrick's Day festivities in compliance with a new law that takes effect on Jan.1.

The city will also withdraw its sponsorship of LGBTQ Pride celebrations in June, officials said.The law, backed by Republican Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis is part of the state's ongoing crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that the governor has called discriminatory and said have "no place" in public institutions.The city lawyer for Delray Beach, a community in southeast Florida with picturesque beaches and a historic downtown, told the mayor that any government-sponsored celebrations of culture, ethnicity or heritage that are not a national holiday (for example: Independence Day) could run afoul of the new anti-DEI law.

So, Mayor Tom Carney said, he made the difficult decision to cancel one of the city's biggest events of the year.In past years, the parade, an annual event since 1970, wound its way through the downtown core of Delray Beach with spectators lined up several-people deep along the route.Local businesses and organizations sponsored floats and giveaways.

School bands played as they marched through the streets.Participants included members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the largest and oldest Irish Catholic organization in the country."I've said it's engrained in the DNA of Delray and I do mean that.

It's one of our signature events," Carney, a Republican, told NPR.The mayor said he's hopeful that the city can find a path forward — and a way to preserve the event.If a private sponsor were to volunteer to take over the St.Patrick's Day parade, or the June Pride celebrations, Carney said, the city would gladly hand over the...