On Jan. 15, the Naples City Council in Florida voted to conditionally grant a permit to Naples Pride to host its annual event in the city’s Cambier Park, provided the group pays an estimated $30,000 police security fee and holds a planned drag performance indoors.
During the meeting, city officials tied security costs to intensifying protests targeting Naples Pride since 2023 and cited public comment by a member of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Church Militant at a recent council meeting advocating lynching “homosexuals.” Documents from a public records request show one current City Council member, Vice Mayor Terry Hutchison, helped organize several local protests after the council approved the Naples Pride permit in 2022 without contest.
In a statement, Naples Pride expressed disappointment that the council seemed to ignore recommendations that the event “could be safely held under [the Naples Police Department’s] security plan,” and characterized the decision as a “heckler’s veto,” which, they said, allows “hostile audiences [to] suppress speech by driving up costs.”
‘Denial of transgender existence’
A review of the Jan. 15 meeting shows most public comments opposing Naples Pride’s application followed several common tropes perpetuated by anti-LGBTQ+, Christian supremacist and antigovernment groups. Drag performances have been among the primary targets of both anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist hate groups over the last two years. Many drag performers note the deep and historic link between drag and Black culture made the entertainment an expression of diversity and acceptance.
“Many opponents of drag reject the idea that someone born one gender can choose to express themselves as another,” Naples Pride board member Callhan Soldavini told Hatewatch via email. “Whether in performance or in life. This opposition reflects a broader denial of transgender existence and strikes at the very heart of what Naples Pride stands for and fights to protect.”
Several speakers at the City Council meeting accused LGBTQ+ people of “grooming” children, referencing the false claim derived from white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies that LGBTQ+ people recruit children. Similarly, some commenters said Pride celebrations are a form of “indoctrination” preying on children’s natural curiosity.
Consistent with anti-LGBTQ+ ideology, some people saw a more sinister and organized threat creeping into communities across the country. “Do not allow a Pride event in your city,” one woman said, “They never stay small, they get giant.” Another man suggested being LGBTQ+ is “a sin” and claimed the LGBTQ+ movement for equality was “just a cancer that’s getting worse and worse.”
Most of the comments in opposition to the permit contained misinformation and tropes about drag, the satirical performance art that sends up gender roles. These tropes frequently equate drag with pornography or liken drag performers to exotic dancers. One commenter at the Naples meeting accused drag performers of “pedophilic behavior.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center previously documented the efforts of a hard-right network of pseudoscience purveyors who have attempted to link LGBTQ+ affirmation with pornography and police public affirmations of LGBTQ+ identity, especially in public schools.
In 2023, Florida and Tennessee adopted laws classifying drag performances as adult entertainment and banning children from attending. Although litigation is ongoing, in 2023, the Supreme Court refused to lift an injunction barring Florida from enforcing the law while the case is tried.
In a statement released after the City Council vote, Naples Pride said: “In 2023, several government agencies investigated our drag performances and found they were not harmful to children under the law. Unfortunately, the City Council chose to let its subjective views overshadow this objective information.”
‘I will fight to protect the innocent’
A review of public records shows that one current and one former member of the Naples City Council supported protests in opposition to Naples Pride’s permit application beginning in 2023.
Following the 2022 Pride event, in July 2022, former city councilman Ted Blankenship corresponded via email with a constituent named Christine who said, “There are arrows flying at our children from every direction,” and petitioned the council to “prevent this [drag] happening anywhere in our community again.”
Seven months later, in February 2023, Blankenship responded to the email thread, “FYI they are coming back to the Council meeting on Monday to ask for approval of their event to happen again in June.” Although the permit vote did not occur until March 1, 2023, Blankenship stayed in touch with Christine about changes to the agenda, and she is listed as present in the meeting minutes, although the minutes note she did not appear when called to speak in opposition to the permit.
Blankenship did not respond to an emailed request for comment. As the council voted to approve the permit, members of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Church Militant protested outside. One member of the group also spoke in opposition to the permit, and a protester held a sign saying, “No more perverts on Earth.” In follow-up emails over the next two days, Christine referred to the vote as “the devil’s work” and “disgusting drag BS.” She also congratulated both Blankenship and councilman Terry Hutchison for voting against the permit. Her messages also reference Hutchison’s work organizing a petition drive called StopNaplesDrag.com.
According to the emails, petition signatures were recruited with a message that Hutchison “wants to send a message to those council members who enabled this vile behavior, so he’s collecting signatures from like-minded conservatives who agree that drag shows have NO place in the public streets of our town. Next week, he’s handing his fellow council members a list of EVERYONE who signed the petition.”
In another March 2023 email, a different constituent wrote to Hutchison in support of the Pride permit. The constituent noted Hutchison’s participation in a town hall meeting to organize opposition to the Pride event. In reply, Hutchison said: “Those participating in the Drag Show portion of the Naples Pride event are harming children. Period. I won’t condone it and I will fight to protect the innocent.”
Vice Mayor Hutchison did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
At the Jan. 15, 2025, City Council meeting, the city’s parks and recreation facilities director told the council that since 2023, Naples Pride’s event application was approved by the council without alteration, but noted, “The only issues that we had were with protesters.”
In later comments, police Lt. Michael O’Reilly told the council that the number and coordination of protesters increased significantly over the past three years. “Three years ago [2022], we had four or five protesters. Two years ago [2023], we had 10 to 15. Last year, we estimate 50 to 80 protesters,” he said. O’Reilly also noted that in 2024 protesters were “coordinated,” adding: “They were systematic. They were constantly moving around the exterior [of the event].
“We got several calls from the organizers that were concerned because they were at different entrance gates and shouting at the entrance, shouting at the people inside, shouting at the vendors,” O’Reilly said. He linked the need for additional security at this year’s event to threats to drag performers.
Photos from the 2024 Naples Pride event reviewed by Hatewatch show protesters affiliated with the neo-Nazi group Aryan Freedom Network (AFN) and Church Militant. Local news reported that AFN distributed flyers in Collier County before the 2023 event with what appears to be an image of a white couple holding a baby emblazoned with the phrase, “It’s ok to be white.”
Soldavini told Hatewatch the increased attention and moral panic “empowered these opposition groups to dictate how we can hold our event and the fees we have to pay, but also enabled decision-makers in positions of power to rally supporters of their personal ideological views to censor us, and cost their constituents the increased price for security.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ threats increase security costs
At the Jan. 15 City Council meeting, Naples Police Chief Ciro Dominguez told the council that among other factors, the department considers “the potential for conflict [and] the expected size of the crowd” when determining security fees for a public event.
“If there was to be a drag performance on stage,” Dominguez said, “we would need an additional contingency, because we anticipate, security-wise, there would be a greater threat of outside actors.” Emphasizing the intensity of the threats, Dominguez said that “we had a person here two days ago talking about lynching. So, it’s a real threat, and we take it real and we plan for it that way.”
Dominguez was referring to the City Council’s workshop meeting on Jan. 13. At that meeting, an individual identified by Hatewatch as a member of Church Militant, who was also present at the March 1, 2023, protest outside the City Council meeting, referenced lynching “homosexuals.” He said: “Americans of Thomas Jefferson’s persuasion have no other logical conclusion to draw, but that lawful violence is acceptable in response to the kind of savage behavior being proposed to take place here in Cambier Park. And I pray that God will remove the people that are trying to do these horrible things in my community.”
At the Jan. 15 meeting, Councilwoman Beth Petrunoff confirmed hearing the comments, saying, “I did hear that [lynching threat], too. It’s something to follow up on.”
Dominguez laid out three options for the council: approve the application, deny the application, or condition the application on having at least part of the event indoors.
The City Council chose the latter, voting 5-2 to conditionally approve the permit but requiring Naples Pride to host the planned drag performance indoors. The council also determined the group would be responsible for paying the sizable security fee.
“Rather than defer to the Naples Police Department’s expert opinion they could accomplish this safely under their security plan based on nationwide standards and best practices, the City officials still deferred to their own subjective opinions — on what drag is, on what the community wants, on what they think is safe,” Soldavini said in an emailed statement. “However, denying our permit because it includes drag, asking us to hide drag, or imposing excessive security fees empowers opposition groups to censor views they dislike. It sends a dangerous message: hostile groups can silence free speech by creating fear and hostility.”
Picture at top: Naples Pride is shown participating in the City of Naples Fourth of July Parade in 2024. (Courtesy of Naples Pride)