Two Florida lawmakers have filed legislation in the House and Senate to ban certain political flags, including Pride and Black Lives Matter banners, from being flown above government buildings.
Sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville) and Rep. David Borrero (R-Hialeah), SB 426/HB 347 would prohibit flags showing political, ideological, gender, racial, or sexual orientation depictions atop government entities across the state.
Specifically, this includes "any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, symbol, or advertisement of any nature" in the above categories. The legislation also covers schools and universities.
The bill would still allow, however, the U.S. flag, state flag, flag of another state or country, flag of a city, county, or municipality, flag of the armed forces, POW-MIA flag, U.S. Paralympic flag, flag of a hosting sporting organization, recognized tribal flag, and others to be flown.
It also requires a government building to fly the American flag above other flags it wishes to display.
Violators of the proposed law could also receive a $500 fine for noncompliance. Moreover, the collected fines would be distributed into the state's General Revenue Fund.
This isn't the first time that Rep. David Borrero has filed this bill in the House. In fact, it is the fourth in his pursuit.
In 2025, Borrero's legislation died in the Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee before ever receiving a floor vote. An identical Senate version sponsored by then-state Sen. Randy Fine was also withdrawn from consideration.
Borrero also tried the previous year with the same result, and the year before that as well.
Will the fourth time be the charm? Or will Borrero's bill suffer the same result it has received since 2023?
The Florida legislative session starts on Jan. 13. If passed, the legislation would take effect on July 1.
The Floridian has reached out to Rep. David Borrero for comment and will update this story if a comment is received.
