Florida lesbians say $250-per-day fine against rainbow fence violates their constitutional rights

A lesbian Florida couple allege in a lawsuit that Key West authorities are violating their constitutional right to paint rainbow colors on their picket fence.

Nicole Sohn and her wife, Linda Bagely-Sohn, have filed a lawsuit after the city’s Historic Architectural Review Commission fined them $250 a day for their LGBTQ fence.

‘If the city is only enforcing the law against some people because of the message they’re expressing, that’s viewpoint discrimination.’

The couple said they decided to paint the pickets as a way of protesting state officials ordering that rainbow crosswalks be painted over to avoid politicization of public spaces. They live in the historic Old Town section of the city.

“It was so upsetting for so many of us, and I woke up one morning and was like, ‘I’m going to paint some pickets on our front gate,'” Sohn said.

“We posted on Facebook as a joke, like, ‘Anyone else want the rainbow fairy to come visit?'” she added. “And we were inundated, and my wife and I ran around that weekend painting a bunch of fences and gates, and it just took off.”

That’s when the commission notified them that the fences were in violation of local regulations, after they received several complaints. The couple said they tried to go through the approval process and obtain a permit for the fences but were denied.

They were told in March to paint the illicit fences an approved color or face the daily fine.

ACLU of Florida attorney Nick Warren accuses the city of violating the lesbians’ constitutional rights.

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“If you walk around Old Town Key West, you’ll see lots of colorful displays and different colored paints on fences and houses,” Warren says. “Many of them violate the same rules that the city is citing — but if the city is only enforcing the law against some people because of the message they’re expressing, that’s viewpoint discrimination.”

Their attorney said the city has three weeks to respond to the lawsuit, and city officials did not comment about the litigation.

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