Broward Denies Arts Grants to Stonewall Museum and Island SPACE Under Florida's Anti-DEI Law

Broward County has turned down general operating grants for the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Fort Lauderdale and the Island SPACE Caribbean Museum in Plantation. They are among the first rejections reported since Florida passed a law that will bar cities and counties from funding diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Stonewall, which received about $70,000 from the county last year and more than $1 million since 2014, learned Thursday, Oct. 8, that its application would not move forward, WLRN reported. Island SPACE confirmed its proposal was rejected the same week.

The rejections show how the law is already shaping local arts funding in one of Florida's most Democratic counties, nearly three months before it takes effect.

The law behind the rejections

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed CS/SB 1134, titled "Official Actions of Local Governments," at a Jacksonville event in April. It became Chapter 2026-43, Laws of Florida, and takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, according to the Florida Senate. The law prohibits counties and municipalities from funding, promoting or taking official action related to diversity, equity and inclusion. It voids local ordinances, programs and policies that conflict with it, and it says a county commissioner or city official who violates it commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office, which opens the door to removal.

WLRN reported that the law defines DEI as giving preferential treatment based on race, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. The bill passed the Senate 25-11 and the House 77-37 in March. It was sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, a Jacksonville Republican, who said in the governor's signing announcement that "cities and counties have been funding and promoting divisive activities under the guise of DEI."

Stonewall rewrote its application and was still rejected

Stonewall describes itself as the oldest national LGBTQ+ history museum. In its message to Director of Advancement Monque Setlock, the county's Cultural Division said the decision reflected a review of current program requirements and funding as well as "applicable administrative and policy requirements," according to WLRN.

CEO and President Robert Kesten said a county official called him when the law first passed and urged him to redo the proposal. He rewrote the application to remove specific references to the LGBTQ+ community and resubmitted it. It was rejected anyway.

"The impact means that we will close out the year losing money, rather than maintaining money in the bank," Kesten told WLRN. "And it will make it more difficult for us to do our jobs and keep the doors open."

He rejected the county's position that its hands are tied. "When they come back and say, 'We're just upholding the law, we know it's a bad law,' that's an excuse," Kesten said.

Island SPACE loses a third funding source

Island SPACE, which calls itself the world's first and only pan-Caribbean heritage museum, has now lost government funding at three levels. In 2024 DeSantis vetoed more than $30 million in state budget grants, including the museum's. Executive Director Calibe Thompson then learned the museum would lose an Institute of Museum and Library Services African American museums grant. Now Broward's money is gone too, WLRN reported.

"We're literally having to reimagine how we sustain ourselves," Thompson said. In September she told WLRN she "disagrees patently" with the idea that celebrating one group takes something away from another. She said county funding helped get the museum off the ground. The Plantation museum runs exhibits on figures such as Usain Bolt and Bob Marley and community events including a Mango Festival and a Rum Cake Festival.

How much is at stake

Broward's Cultural Division approved 167 grants totaling about $6.4 million last fiscal year, most of them general operating support grants like Stonewall's. County commissioners budgeted about the same amount for cultural grants this fiscal year. The division did not respond to WLRN in time for publication, and it is not clear how many applications were submitted, rejected or advanced this cycle.

Other groups expect to lose money as well. In September, Commissioner Steve Geller told WLRN that the Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida, Island SPACE, the Broward County Black Chamber of Commerce and the South Florida Greek Film Festival would not be funded under the law. Because the law also bars separating people by gender, he said, groups such as the Florida Singing Sons, a youth arts education nonprofit, and Women in Music Ayo would also be ineligible. The Gay Men's Chorus expects to lose about $90,000, roughly 8% of its budget.

Geller said the law is so broadly written that "it is almost impossible in many cases to tell what it applies to." He said Broward has "chosen to be on the conservative side," partly because "the governor would love to remove elected officials in Broward County." The county's former cultural division director, Phil Dunlap, left in August for a job with the city of Phoenix and said the law contributed to his decision.

The commission's split

The arts rejections are part of a broader rollback at the county. On Oct. 6 the Broward County Commission voted 6-2 to schedule public hearings on two ordinances. One would repeal the Racial Equity Task Force, created in 2020, and the Commission on the Status of Women, which dates to 1976. The other would remove membership requirements tied to specific communities from other county boards, including an LGBTQ+ seat on the Homeless Continuum of Care Board.

Commissioner Beam Furr, who leaves office in November, is the only commissioner who has consistently voted against DEI cuts tied to the law, according to WLRN. Commissioner Nan Rich joined him in opposing the Oct. 6 measures. "We, this community, have been a leader in this state on human rights, on civil rights," Furr said at that meeting. "And now we're being asked to backpeddle, and I don't want to backpeddle."

Most commissioners say they oppose the changes but feel bound by the law and fear removal from office. "I think that everybody here knows that if it was up to the nine people here, that this would fail unanimously," Geller said.

What's next

The Broward County Commission will hold public hearings on the two ordinances at its next regular meeting, Oct. 20, where residents can speak. The county has not released a full list of this cycle's cultural grant decisions. The state ban takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. Some groups are turning to private donors to replace lost public money. The South Florida philanthropy Our Fund Foundation told WLRN that pledged future gifts have grown from $200 million to more than $300 million in the last two and a half years.