Saturday, February 2, 2008

Tampa Mayor Iorio Rejects Hillsborough Due to Gay Pride Ban in Libraries & Lack of Tolerance


A pair of Hillsborough county commissioners are using passage of the Amendment One property tax measure to pitch merging some government services with the city of Tampa.

Mayor Pam Iorio’s reaction: A very firm no, at least when it comes to parks, an area the commissioners cited as an example.

Iorio said she has no interest in letting the county shape recreation programs in light of the county's nearly three-year-old ban on gay pride displays at libraries.

The mayor wrote:

On another note, the county took over the library system many years ago. (It has its own county-wide millage rate) This worked well until a few years ago when the BOCC decided not to allow any Gay pride displays at the libraries. This I very much disagreed with and thought it sent the wrong tone for the entire community. The City co-sponsors through our Parks and Recreation Department many special events as I mentioned above. One for example is Winter Pride at Al Lopez Park. We should not merge any services where our values are not compatible. The County’s lack of tolerance towards a segment of our community cannot be allowed to affect the services provided by Parks and Recreation.


Brandon Pride commemorates the ban with an annual read-in.

See Librarian for details.

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