St. Johns County facing lawsuit over gay Pride rights

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A person is suing the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners after the person said it violated their civil rights by refusing a request to celebrate the LGBTQ community with a Pride Proclamation.

The lawsuit, filed three days into Pride Month, alleges that Jeremiah Blocker, the chairman of St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, as well as the Board, did not allow the LGBTQ Pride Proclamation to be discussed or put to a vote.

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The reason? The suit states Blocker found the proclamation to be too “controversial” and “left-leaning,” and it “would not come before the Board for consideration.”

Sara Bloomberg, the person behind the lawsuit, argues that was “unlawful viewpoint discrimination“ and says their rights to freedom of speech were in violation of the First Amendment of the country’s constitution, as incorporated with the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Bloomberg is seeking the following from the suit:

• A declaratory judgment that the chairman and the Board violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and Article I, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, by refusing to hear or allow a public vote on the LGBTQ Pride Proclamation, “based upon the content and Chairman Blocker’s personal animus towards the LGBTQ community”
• Preliminary and permanent injunctions ordering the chairman and the Board to immediately hold a public hearing on the issue of the LGBTQ Pride Proclamation
• Nominal monetary relief
• An award of attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988
• Such other relief as this Court deems just and proper

Action News Jax’s Ben Becker is digging through the suit and will have a live report on this developing story today on FOX30 and CBS47.

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