"How Dare You": LGBTQ Advocates Skewer Rep. Basabe in Advance of Pride Parade

A group protesting Florida House Rep. Fabián Basabe says he is in for a rude awakening if he shows up for the upcoming Miami Beach Pride Parade.

Basabe plans to participate in the city's popular pride festivities this weekend, fresh off his votes to advance legislation that advocates say will stigmatize and dehumanize the LGBTQ community as part of a barrage of bigoted bills on the verge of becoming law in Florida.

Accusing Basabe of hypocrisy and backtracking on his pledge to support the gay community, Equality Florida is staging a protest outside Basabe's office today to demand his resignation. The group is also calling on local residents to oppose his participation in the pride events.

Miami Beach's pride festival kicks off April 15 at Lummus Park, to be followed by the pride parade on Ocean Drive on April 16.

"We want everyone to know what he's doing in Tallahassee. He thinks he can cozy up to his buddies there and not be noticed as he votes against our families, our students, our youth, [and] our transgender community," Stratton Pollitzer, co-founder and deputy director of Equality Florida, tells New Times. "The bills he is voting for are incredibly dangerous. We want everybody to know who he is and we think that, when they do, his political future in Miami Beach is 100 percent over."

Basabe passes off the criticism as the work of "advocacy groups whose sole existence relies on the funding they can raise with the controversy they continue to promote."

"I love our LGBTQIA+ community," he tells New Times.

The socialite-turned-politician is no stranger to controversy. In the weeks leading up to the 2022 election, the former reality television star faced criticism for his antics as a child of wealth who was "a fixture on the social and nightlife scenes" in New York City and Miami Beach, as he described it. More recent escapades included an arrest tied to an incident in which he grabbed and threw a woman's phone at a Miami Beach pool party.

The ex-"it" boy maintained that his not-so-flattering tabloid coverage was overblown. He said he had reformed himself and became a family man in the years since his celebrity days.

On April 13, an aide went public with accusations that Basabe slapped him in the face and told him to go stand in a corner during a reception in Tallahassee. Basabe told CBS News Miami that he doesn't "remember anything like that."

During his 2022 campaign, Basabe ran as a moderate Republican for Florida House of Representatives District 106, pledging to support gay rights and the LGBTQ community.

Advocates say he's now supporting bills that cater to Gov. Ron DeSantis' ever-increasing indulgence in culture wars and anti-LGBTQ grandstanding to score political points.

"These bills are stripping away resources in our schools," Pollitzer says. "They are undermining protections there. It sends a horrible message to LGBTQ students that they better hide, that we can't talk about them in classrooms... What kind of a message does Fabian want to send to those kids? Does he think that they should spend their lives in the closet?"

Basabe's conservative positions on recent legislation have come deeper into focus in light of a recently resurfaced recording in which he appears to reveal he is gay. He made the statement at the Florida LGBTQ Democratic Caucus' Let’s Get Loud conference in 2021, during an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Miami Beach city commission.

"I am a Republican, and I am a gay candidate running for office in Miami Beach," Basabe said.

Basabe has been married to his self-described best friend and college sweetheart, a clothing industry heiress, since 2005. He made his image as a conservative family man a key element of his statehouse campaign.

Among other controversial bills, Basabe voted on March 31 in favor of HB 1069, which would expand DeSantis' Parental Rights in Education measure, AKA "Don't Say Gay," by prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from prekindergarten through eighth grade. Those restrictions will also extend to charter schools under the bill.

The bill bars public school employees from asking kindergarten through 12th grade students their preferred personal pronouns (e.g. "he," "she," or "they"). It also restricts public school teachers from referring to someone by their personal pronouns if "such personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person's sex."

According to the bill, sex is defined as "an immutable biological trait," and "it is false to ascribe a pronoun that does not correspond" to a person's sex.

"We know there is overwhelming evidence of the damage that 'Don't Say LGBTQ' is already doing in our state," Pollitzer tells New Times.

On Wednesday, April 12, as part of the State Administration and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee, Basabe voted in favor of HB 1423, entitled "Protection of Children." The bill would prohibit children from attending adult live performances with risque content and institute criminal penalties, such as fines of $10,000 and possible jail time, if children are present even in the company of an adult. (The Florida Senate passed its version of the bill this week).

Although the bill does not specifically mention drag shows or pride festivals, advocates fear the vague language will empower over-policing and scrutiny of LGBTQ-centered events. The legislation comes at the height of the DeSantis administration's crackdown on child attendance at drag events, a clear indication that the bill is aimed at the LGBTQ community, according to advocacy groups.

During a committee meeting, Basabe voiced his support for the bill, claiming it addresses "the vulgarity, the indecent exposure" and is not "meant to target any artistic expression." He claimed he supports drag, recalling how parties in the 1990s and 2000s did not start "until a drag queen entered the room."

"There's a lot of activists that have taken things too far these days, and what they're doing is they're making it bad for the really quality performers that are out there," Basabe said.

He tells New Times he is "helping to elevate the image of our true drag performers, whose reputation and industry has been affected by drag activists, giving them a bad name."

But Pollitzer calls Basabe's logic for supporting the bill twisted and self-serving.

"Anyone who listens to the full commentary of not just that bill but everything being said in Tallahassee about our community knows that the true intent behind these bills is to attack our community," Pollitzer argues. "One of his colleagues called transgender people and parents of transgender people 'demons' and 'imps' this week. He is willing to be aligned with that. It's not enough that he is voting for these bills. He also repeatedly turns his microphone on to speak out in support of them."

Despite the criticism, Basabe says he is planning to attend this weekend's festivities.

"This is my home and community, and I am very much looking forward to seeing everyone and I hope they are excited to see me," Basabe tells New Times. "I am keenly aware that there will be outside interests treading onto Miami Beach soil with intentions of creating chaos and causing trouble — and, of course, calling attention themselves."

Pollitzer says Basabe's flip-flopping on LGBTQ issues is "not going to fly on South Beach."

"He should be ashamed to represent Miami Beach," Pollitzer says. "I understand he is coming to the pride festival — that says to me that he has disconnected from reality and does not recognize the reception he will have when he's attacking our community and then dares to show up at pride. How dare you?"