Venice to create code of conduct for events after complaints about Pride Festival

VENICE – In response to complaints about the Nov. 12  Venice Pride Festival held in Centennial Park, the city of Venice will install a code of conduct section as part of its special event permit process to clearly outline the host's responsibilities and ramifications for violations.

Videos circulated on social media – notably of individuals attempting to pole dance on a lamp post and a ring-toss game involving sex toys – stirred national attention that prompted Jack Brill, acting chairman of Republican Party of Sarasota County, to write to the city calling for council members investigate the event and place a hold on future permits.

City Manager Ed Lavallee briefed members of the Venice City Council Tuesday on the permitting changes. Details on what potential penalties for violations, other than denial of future permit requests, are not clear.

Related: Rage erupts after Venice Pride Festival

That update provided a bookend to a meeting that started with a half-dozen people voicing their displeasure during public comment about what happened at the festival.

“This is not what we want in our public streets,” said Venice resident Rhonda Eynon, who later added that clear parameters needed to be set for all festivals and Venice police empowered to enforce those parameters.

“I’m horrified by the events that went on downtown and was allowed,” South Venice resident Marcia Snyder said. “The words gay or straight is about sexual preference only.”

U.S.A.F. Retired Master Sgt. Barbara Vaughn, who has helped organize Sept. 11 memorial services at Patriots Park and the Bible Read-A-Thon in April at Centennial Park, called the event a "shame" that brought bad publicity to Venice.

“It’s a real shame for the gay pride people who could have taken this opportunity to prove to a skeptical citizenry that they are citizens, too, that they just want to live their lives and live with other families,” Vaughn said. “The members of our gay pride community deserve to be represented well and honestly – not by twerking, not by sex toys.”

National publicity

The 2022 festival marked the third time Venice Pride hosted a festival in Venice but the was the first on public property.

Former Venice mayor Ron Feinsod spoke at the second event and attended this year's festival.

Feinsod said the 2022 event had more vendors than in previous years. He saw no problems at the festival but never went near the ring toss.

The publicity from the Nov. 12 festival prompted Venice Pride to cancel its participation in the Venice Holiday Parade, though members of the group have blended in seamlessly while participating in several recent events, notably the Venice Sun Fiesta, an October Halloween costume party and concert and at the nonprofit’s booth at the Venice Farmers Market.

Earlier: Venice Pride out of Venice Holiday Parade

Lavalle told council members that in post-event discussions, festival organizers indicated they were not fully aware of both their responsibility while hosting an event at a city park, or the level of authority they had to stop unruly attendees.

“There appears to be some lack of clarity on what that responsibility was,” said Lavalle, who added that the criticism the city  has received “largely indicated dislike for what happened but more importantly, fix that.”

Lavallee said that staff explained that once a permit is secured there's an obligation to stick to the application and ensure the activities are appropriate.

Kathy Hanas, president of Venice Pride, did not return either an email or two phone messages requesting comment.

At the meeting, City Council Member Rachel Frank asked for an elaboration on potential consequences when the code of conduct is violated.

Beyond the obvious denial of future permit applications, penalties have not been fully established.

“There are penalties and exclusions that are built into any violations of the permit,” Lavallee said, though he added the chief complaint from Nov. 12 involved acts or games that people considered obscene.

Lavallee, a former law enforcement officer, said that obscenity is a legal term, subject to interpretation.

“We certainly would not approve an application that would suggest any of that,” he said.

The Venice Pride Festival was billed as a family-friendly event.

Police Chief Charlie Thorpe said the officer stationed at the festival did receive obscenity complaints and he called a supervisor for guidance.

“There was one group there that provided officers on scene a statute on obscenity.” Thorpe said.

Social media prompts complaints

Many of the complaints made either by phone to Venice police or by email to council members, came from people who viewed social media videos. Still, Thorpe said, police checked to see what statutes would apply and reached out to anyone who voiced a concern about children being influenced.

“There were a lot of people who saw things on the internet and wanted to let us know they were offended,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe confirmed that about four people purported to be affiliated with the Proud Boys attended the event and expressed their displeasure with a bullhorn but said that no conflict resulted from that.

Of the two issues most frequently cited by those who complained, Assistant City Manager James Clinch noted that participants in the dancing incident “were attendees of the event, not associated with Venice Pride.”

Feinsod echoed that sentiment.

“They were on public property as private citizens,” he said. “That part of it could have happened at any time, any place on public land."

Feinsod said that festival-goers should have exercised some forethought before attending.

“When you go to a Pride event you should realize you’re going to an event for the LGTBQ+ community,” Feinsod said. “If you’re not comfortable, don’t go.”

The ring toss – sponsored by CAN Community Health, a Sarasota-based nonprofit specializing in HIV education, testing, and medical care. – provoked the most outrage after LibsOfTiktok, a far-right blog with more than  1.5 million followers on Twitter, published a Substack that singled out the booth.

CAN released a statement stressing that its activities are never advertised as children’s events. The nonprofit said it is also reevaluating its outreach activities at future community events.

Clinch noted that the Proud Boy members in attendance called for the Venice Police officers present – in addition to one officer assigned to the event, a second floating officer was on call – to have the ring toss game removed.

‘A good track record’

Under the current permit application process, all first-time permits are approved by the City Council, while repeat permits are handled administratively by staff.

Lavallee told the council that if members wanted, every applicant could be vetted by the board.

Should Venice Pride apply for another festival, he said that would be brought before the council.

As it now stands, permit applicants who are rejected on an administrative level could then appeal to the City Council.

That sat well with both council members Mitzie Fiedler and Dick Longo, who liked the option.

Prior to being sworn in as a council member, Longo had written an email to Lavallee urging that Venice Pride not be allowed to participate in the parade.

Clinch said that Venice Pride applied for this year's permit in May

“We had a good track record with them up until this point,” Clinch said, adding that’s why there was an expectation that it would host a family-friendly event.

While Clinch did not attend the festival, he said his mother and nephew were there and visited the kid zone.

“No issues reported at all,” Clinch said. “It was a great time.”

He said the festival was larger than anything the group had previously hosted and while he couldn't speak for them, Venice Pride officials “ admitted they could have done a better job regulating the activities.”

The city is in the process of adding that code of conduct section to the special event permit application.

“That will be included in every special event moving forward,” Clinch said. “This is the first time we’ve experienced a code of conduct issue with any of our events.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: LGBTQ+ festival backlash prompts new conduct code for Venice events