DEI not quite dead

By John Labriola - The battle to keep woke ideology out of how Citrus County's tourist tax dollars are spent may not be over. 

As recently reported by the Citrus Crusader, the Citrus County Commission has decided not to go forward with a proposed $55,000 "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" (DEI) marketing plan to attract more LGBT and less white, Christian, family-oriented tourism to Citrus County. But aspects of the plan may survive – only without the label.

The DEI proposal, which was unanimously endorsed by the county's Tourism Development Council (TDC) in January, was removed from a recent county commission agenda after more than one commissioner requested it be pulled. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion have become well-known leftist code words for "woke" sexual and racial identity politics advancing race-based preferences, anti-white hatred, LGBT ideology, and the cancellation of conservative voices.

The poisonous nature of the DEI agenda, which gained momentum after the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, was highlighted by Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference Monday at Sarasota's New College. DeSantis was there to sign a bill prohibiting the state's public colleges and universities from spending state or federal funds on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

"DEI is better viewed as standing for Discrimination, Exclusion and Indoctrination," DeSantis said at the press conference.

Citrus County Commissioner Holly Davis, who chairs the TDC, has said she regrets her January vote for the unpopular DEI tourism plan. But other members of the leftist-dominated TDC remain unapologetic about voting to spend $55,000 in hotel bed tax dollars on a video shoot to promote Citrus County as a woke, queer tourist destination. 

"I do not regret and will not rescind my vote approving it back in January," TDC member Mike Engiles, owner of Crystal River Watersports, defiantly declared at the TDC's May 10 meeting.

Crystal River Councilwoman Cindi Guy, who represents the city on the TDC, also defended her vote, saying the DEI plan "included different ethnic groups too," as if the proposed video shoot's exclusion of white people (unless homosexual or handicapped) made up for the plan's LGBT-promoting aspects.

For her part, Davis appeared to somewhat walk back her recent statement of regret, saying "I just regret the letter part" – referring to the DEI acronym – because those letters "have been weaponized."  

Davis also berated a resident who objected to the county's ongoing expenditure of about $5,000 a year to place ads in the homosexual online travel magazine OutCoast to encourage "LGBTQ+" travelers to visit Crystal River and the surrounding areas. 

"It's not about sexual behavior; it's about who you fall in love with!" Davis insisted. 

Davis then lobbed an outlandish accusation at what has become her favorite target: straight white men. 

"Some of the worst-behaving tourists in this county have been straight white males who get out of their boats on people's lawns in Blue Waters to poop on the lawns!" she claimed. (See video HERE.) 

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