AĀ rainbow-colored pole with a disco ball on topĀ may not be the only holiday display in the Florida Capitol rotunda this season.
On Monday, aĀ Department of Management Services spokeswoman said one other group had filed to place a display:Ā Chabad Lubavitch of Tallahassee and FSU filed to place a 9-foot-tall menorah, representing the traditional nine-taper candle holder used during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah began SundayĀ evening and ends next Monday evening,Ā Dec. 14. The applicationĀ was not filed until this past Thursday and is being reviewed, DMS spokeswoman Natalee Singleton said.
It has been approved in prior years, however.
Pam Olsen, president of the Florida Prayer Network, onĀ Friday said her group won’t seek toĀ put up a Christian nativity scene because the annualĀ controversy over various displays has become too distracting.
The display causing state officials theĀ most heartburn was the cardboard diorama fromĀ The Satanic Temple.Ā It included an angel figurine suspended by fishing line, falling from clouds made of cotton into flames made of construction paper.
The group has not refiled for consideration this year, according to Singleton.
The departmentĀ had originally rejected the Satanic TempleāsĀ diorama, saying it was āgrossly offensive,ā which nearly sparkedĀ a First Amendment lawsuit.
A Tallahassee woman who described herself as a ādevout Catholicā later was arrested by Capitol Police and charged with criminal mischief after she tried to remove the diorama, though prosecutors later dropped the case.
As of Monday morning, the only otherĀ application for a holiday display isĀ fromĀ South Florida blogger Chaz Stevens, who proposes the Gay Pride version of aĀ Festivus pole. That application also is still under review.
In past years, Stevens was approved to put upĀ a 6-foot-tall pole made of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans, meant to mark Festivus, the fictionalĀ holiday from a 1997 episode of āSeinfeld.ā
“Our Gay Pride Festivus Pole is a jubilant, may I say happy and gay, celebration of SCOTUSā recent ruling regarding same sex marriage,” Stevens said. “Also, at the same time, weāre raising awareness to the problem of young LGBTQ men and women who are bullied and harassed.”
Other displays in recent years, besides the more traditional menorah and Christmas tree, have included:
- A banner celebrating the Winter Solstice from The Freedom From Religion Foundation
- A placard with a tongue-in-cheek message to ācelebrate the true meaning of Xmasā withĀ āfriends,ā āfunā and āChinese foodā by American Atheists
- AĀ āHappy Holidays from the Tallahassee Atheistsā banner
- The āFlying Spaghetti Monsterā display put up by Secular Student Alliance and PastafarianĀ Peter Wood
