Sunshine Skyway Bridge Won’t Light Up For Pride Month: Report

FLORIDA — Sunshine Skyway Bridge won’t light up in colors recognizing several awareness events and holidays, including LGBTQ Pride month and Juneteenth, this year, according to multiple reports.

Instead, this summer, the bridge will display red, white and blue colors in recognition of the state’s Freedom Summer Sales Tax Holiday, according to Watermark. It will be lit in these colors from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Because the Skyway Bridge is located in Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, the Florida Department of Transportation requires lighting displays to be approved by all three county commissions, Fox 13 said.

The Manatee County commission chair, Mike Rahn, told the agency that the county no longer wants to be part of making decisions about the bridge’s displays.

“What's happened is the lighting of the bridge has somewhat gotten out of control with all the requests we get," he said. "We get requests every single day to light the bridge for every event that is out there, and it should not fall with us as a county commission or a county commission; it should fall on FDOT."

“The state set up a process to bring about consensus among the three counties. We have been following this process for several years. Now one commissioner wants to cancel the whole thing. It makes a sham of the process," Pinellas County Commissioner Charlie Justice told 10 Tampa Bay. "And we miss the opportunity to bring awareness and recognition to our LGBTQ community, to bring awareness for those who are working to eradicate diseases, to bring awareness of those living with autism — this is just wrong for so many reasons. The State should follow the process they set up.”

The red, white and blue colors affect a range of awareness days, including Mental Health Awareness (May 28-31), National Gun Violence Awareness Day (June 7), Sickle Cell Awareness Day (June 18), World Fragile X Day for Autism (July 22) and Ovarian Cancer Awareness (Sept. 1-7).