It was good while it lasted, this One Human Family thing.

The Key West City Commission unanimously adopted the phrase as its overarching philosophy on Oct. 17, 2000. The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners followed suit in 2001. With T-shirts, flags, 400,000 wristbands and 4.5 million stickers, we have proudly claimed that welcoming inclusiveness for almost 30 years.

The Monroe County Tourist Development Council adopted “Come As You Are” as its official marketing motto and tagline in April 2010, aligning the advertising behemoth’s messaging with the One Human Family philosophy.

One Human Family is the culmination of almost two centuries of island culture that recognized that at one time or the other most Key West residents had fled the mainland or foreign lands to gamble their futures on a spit of inhospitable land 150 miles from Miami. The island never exactly welcomes newcomers. Instead, it kinda tolerates them for the longest while, maybe undermines their endeavors to test their fortitude and rolls its collective eyes and sighs. If they stick it out long enough, all those newcomers with their myriad differences eventually absorb the One Human Family message: Come as you are — just don’t be a jerk.

Yeah. Well. That’s over.

So over that I’d not be the least surprised to see city and county agenda items rescinding their previous adoptions of the One Human Family motto. Ditto the TDC ditching “Come As You Are.” Landon Bradbary, a Key West entertainer and DJ, took to social media this week to offer up a disclaimer: “Key West & the Florida Keys: Come As You Are. *Some restrictions apply.”

The city, county and TDC are scrambling to comply with Florida’s “Anti-Diversity in Local Government” law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2027. The new law, warmly embraced by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the legislature, is extraordinarily broad and ambiguous.

So much so that a handful of ambitious municipalities were successful in gaining a couple carve-outs: Orlando gets to keep its Pulse Memorial. Cities can continue to issue a permit for things like a Pride parade or Goombay street fair. Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth get a pass because they’re federal holidays. Black History Month and Women’s History Month may not get a pass. They’re not federal holidays, but instead rely on a presidential proclamation.

But in Key West and the Keys the damage is unequivocal. I think we can safely say the rainbow arch, which the city promised would be a collaborative replacement for the ripping out of our rainbow crosswalks last year, ain’t happening. Even with private funding, the city will never put that thing on city property. I guess they’ll have to rescind their “historic gayborhood” proclamation, too.

One Human Family: 30 years and gone?

The damage is far more than symbolic. While it maintained its 2026 funding for Key West Pride, Tropical Heat Key West and Womenfest Key West, the TDC and Monroe County this week announced there would be no financial support in 2027.

That funding underpins marketing and branding efforts for those events, which are directed by the Key West Business Guild. Based on 2026 grants, Pride loses $74,500. Tropical Heat loses $25,000. Womenfest loses $39,500. And under state law the TDC will not do any marketing.

The TDC funding does not pay for the events. The events are self-supporting with funds from participants and sponsors. The TDC funds help offset advertising and promotion. The TDC itself is primarily funded by a four percent Tourist Development Tax levied on transient rentals, such as hotels, motels, and on vacation rentals for stays of six months or less. This tax is part of a broader 12.5 percent total bed tax collected from visitors to promote the Florida Keys and support tourism-related infrastructure

The future of the Guild’s annual Headdress Ball, one of the premiere kickoff events of October’s Fantasy Fest, is in limbo. Fantasy Fest, produced by the Tourist Development Association (not the TDC) and managed by Nadine Grossman Orr’s We’ve Got the Keys, isn’t an exclusively LGBTQ event. But its queer and ally support is so tightly woven into its fabric as to be impossible to pull apart. In short, how does one go about producing and marketing this juggernaut without rainbows?

Every organization receiving TDC funding got this message recently: Fill out the form and tell us if any of your events and programs are designed to enhance or promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Yes? No funds. No? Probably no funds because, well, it seems like you do. Feel free, the message said, to dispute. I’ve heard of one dispute that was granted. The rest? Nada.

And lest you be chortling that “This’ll teach THOSE people,” consider this: The Sons and Daughters of Italy had their TDC funding reduced from $25,000 to $3,500. It’ll be a year before we know how much city, county and TDC event funding has evaporated, and another three or so, I suspect, before we start wondering where the crowds are for our headline events and why the cash registers aren’t ringing.

Hundreds of thousands of TDC, city and county dollars are being stripped from local nonprofits and business organizations. Add that to at least a million-plus pulled this year and next from dozens of nonprofits filling the gaps the government can’t or won’t fund, like child-, elder- and healthcare, transportation, housing and arts, culture and entertainment.

Those are the dumbest financial moves we could make, because they chip away at the foundation of our tourist economy. It took years to build the engines that support our workers and their families. It took years to catapult events like Pride and Womenfest into tourism drivers. We’ve come undone.

And the people in charge kowtow without a whimper as they end each missive with blather about how these are state mandates. We’re just following orders. Just once I’d like to hear them say “We have to abide by the law, and we’re going on the record: This sucks. This isn’t right. This isn’t who we are. We’re going to do whatever it takes — including how we vote — to overturn these laws.” Alas. Crickets.

I check several times a week as I go past City Hall to see if the rainbow flag is still flying. How much ya want to bet it doesn’t last the year?

Almost 30 years as “One Human Family. Come as you are.” Seven words with the cultural power of 200 years of diversity, equity and inclusion erased as we watch. Federal, state and local people in charge are blindly complicit in this destruction. I am not. You are not. Fight on.

Learn more

The full text of the TDC and Monroe County news release announcing the cuts:

NEW STATE LAW IMPACTS MONROE COUNTY TDC GRANTS AND EVENT FUNDING

MONROE COUNTY, FL – Monroe County is informing the public of changes to Tourist Development Council (TDC) grant eligibility following the passage of new state legislation restricting the use of public funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Florida Statute 125.595(1)(b); Senate Bill 1134/House Bill 1001, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on April 22, 2026, prohibits counties from funding, promoting, or taking official action related to DEI efforts. The law specifically prohibits the county from promoting or providing preferential treatment or special benefits to a person or group based on that person’s or group’s race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation while still allowing the use of equal opportunity or equal employment opportunity materials designed to inform a person about the prohibition against discrimination based on protected status under state or federal law. The law also provides an extensive list of exemptions.

As a result of the newly enacted law, Monroe County and the TDC are mandated to review event grant applications and funding allocations to confirm compliance with the new state law.  The TDC utilizes committees in five districts, known as the District Advisory Committees (DACs), along with the Cultural and Fishing Umbrella committees, to review and award grants under the TDC event grant program. After thoroughly reviewing the grant applications to determine eligibility under the new law, each DAC and Umbrella will consider the eligible applications and publicly recommend funding. There were no impacts to DAC II, DAC III, DAC IV, DAC V, and the fishing-related event applications.

Several DAC I and Cultural Umbrella applications were affected by the new law. For events occurring prior to the effective date of the law, Jan. 1, 2027, funding may be provided only for the portion of activities that take place before that date, resulting in reduced funding eligibility. For example, several Cultural Umbrella event applications will see eligible funding adjustments as follows, and during next year’s grant application cycle, they will not be eligible if they maintain the same event specifics: 

• Aquanettes: Past, Present, and Future- $20,000 (Reduced from $35,000)
• Randy Roberts Live- $8,750 (Reduced from $35,000)
• Sons and Daughters of Italy- $3,500 (Reduced from $25,000)
• The Birdcage Cabaret Starring Christopher Peterson- $20,000 (Reduced from $35,000)

Other grant applicants requesting funding for events that occur after Jan. 1, 2027, the effective date of the new law, will no longer be eligible for funding under the new state law. These include:

• Cultural Umbrella application: Visibility is Power
• DAC I event applications, including:
  • Key West Pride 2027 
  • Tropical Heat Key West 2027
  • Womenfest Key West 2027

The legislation also establishes enforcement provisions, including potential legal action by residents against counties that violate the law, and penalties for elected officials, including removal from office for misfeasance. Monroe County emphasizes that these changes are not discretionary and are required to comply with state law.