Florida’s campaign against diversity has reached the St. Patrick’s Day parade, apparently after somebody tipped off the authorities that the Irish are from somewhere.

Delray Beach says the state’s new law means it will not host its 2027 St. Patrick’s parade or Pride event. The law, signed by Ron DeSantis in April and effective January 1, restricts local-government diversity programming. The city says that includes activities framed around ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.

What a breakthrough. A political project sold as removing divisiveness from civic life has arrived at the startling discovery that civic life contains people. People with histories. People who gather. People who have not thoughtfully converted themselves into interchangeable zoning applicants.

This is the city withdrawing as host, not Florida outlawing private parades. Mayor Tom Carney says he is working with multiple entities to keep the St. Patrick’s event on schedule. Local government is now trying to arrange for a local event to survive the restrictions placed on local government. You could train a marching band to follow that route, but the tuba player would get dizzy.

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DeSantis says the law requires grant recipients to certify that public money will not advance these initiatives and provides penalties for officials. Thus the state’s message to municipal employees: be very careful about celebrating your community; some of it may turn out to be a community.

The burden falls on both events, though the mayor’s reported rescue effort concerns the St. Patrick’s parade. The absurdity is not that Irish heritage deserves an exemption while LGBTQ residents can fend for themselves. It is that government support for people gathering around an identity has become the suspect activity.

Perhaps the parade can reapply as a spontaneous traffic jam.

No heritage. No pride. Just a row of Floridians going nowhere under state supervision.