A proposed incentive package for the
film industry being considered by Florida lawmakers would likely
exclude films with gay characters, the Palm Beach Post
reported.
Lawmakers hope the $75 million package
of tax credits and incentives will entice filmmakers to set up shop
in Florida. The bill's so-called family-friendly tax credit,
however, discourages the production of movies that include depictions
of gay families. The tax credit would only be available to films
that do not exhibit or imply “nontraditional family values.”
“Real-life families come in all
shapes and sizes,” Ted Howard, executive director of Florida
Together, a federation of 80 organizations which support equal
rights for all Florida families, including gay families, said in a
statement. “Marginalizing single-parent families, gay families and
other non-traditional families by instituting 1950's-style movie
censorship does nothing to support real-life families or help
Florida's struggling economy.”
Both chambers of the Legislature have
introduced identical bills.
Representative Stephen Precourt, an
Orlando Republican, told the Palm Beach Post that his House
bill did not target the gay community. But when asked if movies with
gay characters should get the tax credit, he said, “That would not
be the kind of thing I'd say we want to invest public dollars in.”
Under current Florida law,
family-friendly films that exclude smoking, sex, nudity or vulgar
language are eligible for a 2 percent credit. Precourt's bill would
boost the credit to 5 percent and add the nontraditional family
values prohibition.
Several gay rights groups suggested the
prohibition remained too vague.
Florida Film Commissioner Lucia
Fishburne, who along with the state Film and Entertainment Advisory
Council oversees the awarding of the family-friendly tax credit,
called the new language “slipperier.”
“It's fairly subjective now,”
Fishburne told the paper. “This would make it slipperier. I would
need someone to give me direction on what these things mean.”