Sexual Assault Awareness Month was proclaimed in language that singled out LGBTQ and transgender victims

City Clerk Dariana Fitzgerald read, and the St. Augustine Beach City Commission on April 6 adopted with no opposition recorded, a proclamation declaring April 2026 Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The minutes say only that she read it in full. The text as read said LGBTQ plus abuse prevention also needs to be a priority because bisexual men and women are at a higher risk of sexual assault than heterosexual and homosexual men and women, and that transgender students are at a 21 percent higher risk overall in school life.

Allison Hashaw, sexual assault program director at the Betty Griffin Center, thanked the Commission and accepted the proclamation.

Those clauses put sexual orientation and gender identity in the city’s official April label. They did not change a crime statute. The same night the Commission also adopted Water Conservation Month and Arbor Day proclamations. No ordinance, fee, or staffing vote rode with the reading.