A Florida City Just Canceled Its Beloved St. Patrick’s Day Parade Over an Anti-DEI Law — Then DeSantis Accused It of Doing It on Purpose

The way the town tells it, the whole thing started with one man and a pig. In 1968, local pub owner Maury Power strolled down Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida, with a shillelagh in his hand and a green pig at his side. That, according to the parade’s organizers, was the first Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Nearly six decades later, the parade draws tens of thousands of people to the same avenue every March. Floats, firefighters, veterans, school groups and the occasional motorcyclist with a green beard have made it what organizers call the “greatest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Florida.”

Next March, the city says it can’t throw it. And the governor whose law the city blamed says it never had to.

The Announcement Nobody Saw Coming

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Delray Beach announced that it would not organize its 2027 St. Patrick’s Day parade — or its annual Pride festival. The reason, the city said, is Florida Senate Bill 1134, a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in April that bars local governments from funding or promoting what it defines as diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Following a review of the legislation and its requirements, the City has determined that it is legally prohibited from organizing, funding, sponsoring, promoting, or marketing these two events in 2027,” the city said on its website. It added: “This decision is not budgetary in nature, nor is it the result of a local policy decision.”

The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, restricts city programming and activities designed “with reference to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” It exempts holidays recognized by federal law, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth and Christmas. St. Patrick’s Day is not one of them. And the stakes for officials are personal: the city noted that anyone who breaks the law in an official capacity could face allegations of misfeasance or malfeasance. Under Florida’s constitution, that can mean suspension or removal from office by the governor, the New York Post reported.

“Are They Going to Cancel the Christmas Parade?”

The backlash was immediate. “Disappointed? Ridiculous,” one resident told WPBF. “Are they going to cancel the Christmas parade as well?” A Delray Beach police volunteer who has worked the event told the station it brings “50-60,000 people” to town in the middle of the season. At one local Irish pub, where the crowd pours in once the last float passes, a customer told CBS12: “I really don’t understand why they would put this in a DEI type of thing.”

Mayor Tom Carney, a Republican of Irish descent, felt the heat within hours. In 2024 he told the Irish Echo that his Irish heritage “is everything to me.” Now he took to Facebook. “The St. Patrick’s Day Parade isn’t just another parade. It’s engrained in the DNA of the Delray Beach community,” he wrote, announcing that the city was “working feverishly with multiple entities to ensure the 2027 St. Patrick’s Day parade goes on as scheduled!”

He also took a shot at the law itself. The bill, Carney wrote, “puts severe restrictions on how cities can pay for community events such as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade along with potentially other city-sponsored events.”

The Governor Fires Back

Tallahassee was having none of it. On Friday, DeSantis accused the city of something more calculated than confusion.

“Delray Beach is engaging in ‘malicious compliance,’” he wrote on X. “What they are doing is not mandated by Florida law. It’s just an attempt to make a political point — a point that legacy media will no doubt try to amplify. We’ve seen these stunts throughout the years. Rinse and repeat.”

The bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Clay Yarborough, backed him up. “When the bill was on the Senate floor, the specific question was asked related to whether St. Patricks Day observances would be prohibited,” he wrote. “The answer was and still is no.” CBS12 noted the law still lets cities issue event permits in a content-neutral way and provide public safety services.

For the law’s supporters, that’s the whole point: the target was never shamrocks. Yarborough has said the bill was needed because “cities and counties have been funding and promoting divisive activities under the guise of DEI.” DeSantis framed it as a taxpayer issue when he signed it: “Floridians should not be forced to pay for ... identity politics with their hard-earned tax dollars.” The House sponsor, Rep. Dean Black, argued DEI had wasted “millions of taxpayer dollars.”

The city’s answer is written into its own statement. The law, it said, was “not subject to a vote by Delray Beach residents or local elected officials” — yet it is local officials who face the penalties if they guess wrong.

The Parade Nobody Is Fighting For

Then there is the other event on the chopping block. Carney’s rescue post was all about the parade. It said nothing about Pride, a silence both LGBTQ Nation and NBC News noted. Carney has said he would support a privately funded Pride festival. But Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, told CBS12 that an outside organizer would have to raise money for costs cities usually help cover, like security and cleanup. “So it’s a huge expense to have any of these festivals out there,” he said.

LGBTQ Nation pointed out that Delray Beach has been here before. In September 2025, the Florida Department of Transportation painted over the city’s Pride-themed intersection after the city tried to keep it. Carney backed that fight anyway. “My guess is we’re gonna lose,” he said at the time. “Maybe we’ll win, so who knows. Let’s give it a shot.” The city lost.

As of Friday, interested sponsors and an event organizer had come forward to save the St. Patrick’s parade, but nobody had committed to paying for it or running it, CBS12 reported. Other Florida cities are reviewing what the law means for their own events, according to The Guardian.

So a tradition that began with one man, one shillelagh and one green pig is now a test case for an entire state. If DeSantis is right, Delray Beach canceled its own party to make a point. If the city is right, the parade is the first tradition the law has claimed. It may not be the last.

Is Delray Beach simply following the law — or making a point, as DeSantis says? And should taxpayers be paying for heritage and Pride celebrations at all? Tell us where you stand in the comments.

What are your thoughts?