St. Pete Pride carried a message of “never forget, always celebrate” as the city of St. Petersburg came together for its annual Pride week June 22-26.
With the events of Orlando only a few weeks behind us, the entire community seemed intent on remembering the victims of the shooting and honoring them while continuing on the tradition of Pride and carrying on the message.
“We’re not gonna let the bastards beat us,” St. Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman said, speaking to a crowd of more of a hundred people at the Stonewall Reception at the Museum of Fine Art June 22. “We will be taking extraordinary measures to make sure you’re safe [at Pride]. We want you to remember and celebrate. We celebrate our differences. We are a city of opportunity where the sun shines on all.”
The Stonewall Reception, St. Pete Pride’s first official event for the week, brought the community into meet the parade’s grand marshals, each of whom spoke to the crowd to thank them for the honor of being voted a grand marshal and express their love for St. Pete and the LGBT community.
The event was a who’s who of local political figures. Kriseman was joined at the party by Largo commissioner Michael Smith, Florida House hopeful Jennifer Webb and former state Governor Charlie Crist.
At the event, a memorial video created by the Tampa Bay Rays to honor the 49 people who died at Pulse was played, followed by a moment of silence.
For the third year in a row, Kriseman took to the front of City Hall to raise the rainbow flag to officially bring in Pride to downtown June 23.
Kriseman was joined by Equality Florida’s executive director Nadine Smith, St. Petersburg city council vice chair Darden Rice and other local officials, as well as dozens of onlookers as the flag was hoisted into the sky.
Before raising the flag, Kriseman read “Prayer for the World,” a poem by Rabbi Harold Kushner, and then spoke to the crowd.
“When you get tired … tired of being picked on by politicians in Washington or Tallahassee … tired of being targeted by the most radical and dysfunctional fringes of religion … please remember that St. Pete is your shelter,” Kriseman said. “We are a city that no longer simply tolerates diversity, we embrace it. And for as long as I am your mayor, this progressive city will continue to be forward-thinking, refusing to turn back to the days of old.”
Kriseman, with the helping hand of Smith, raised the flag up to mostly applause, with a handful of pro-life protesters off to the side asking for an anti-abortion flag to also be raised.
Pride continued that evening at Macy’s at the Tyrone Square Mall when St. Pete Pride brought on the fashion at their Pride in Fashion event. Macy’s showed off the latest summer trends with sexy models parading this season’s hottest swimwear.
Later that evening, the party continued at the Hotel Zamora on St. Pete Beach as the party goers took to the rooftop bar to drink, hang with friends and dance.
St. Pete Pride took the celebration to the Grand Central District June 24 with the SP2 Concert, and it’s a good thing it was outdoors because any roof overtop these ladies would have been blown off.
Deborah Cox – along with local performers Jennifer Real, Karmic Tattoo and Jami Gee – rocked the crowd with a blend of classics, covers and new songs that had the people literally dancing in the streets as they were taken over with Pride and Girl Power.
Crowds lined up for eleven blocks down Central Avenue June 25 for the main event, the nighttime St. Pete Pride Parade. The block party kicked off at 5 p.m. with the parade starting at sundown.
While official numbers will be released in the coming weeks, early estimates have the crowd at more than 200,000 people, according to St. Pete Pride executive director Eric Skains.
The increased security was definitely noticeable as multiple police officers and cop cars were seen at every intersection and on every corner. Sheriff helicopters could be seen flying over during the celebration.
“We had St. Pete Police, Pinellas Sheriff, Clearwater Police, Hillsborough, Tampa, State Troopers; it was a lot of work trying to coordinate all those guys together but for the most part it went absolutely smooth,” Skains says. “Everyone did a fantastic job making sure it was a seamless event and everyone was safe and secure.”
The parade actually began before the first float pulled onto the street. Come Out With Pride, Orlando’s annual Pride event held in October, sent representatives who marched in silence 17 minutes in advance of the march. The time was 10 seconds of silence for each of the 49 victims killed at the Pulse shooting and 10 seconds of silence for each of the 53 victims sent to the hospital.
“I was standing on the parade route and saw the Orlando people going through. To see the entire street of Central Avenue as [Come Out With Pride] walked with those signs, and the entire street to be silent, it was an amazing scene. I think you had to be there to witness it to get the full impact,” Skains says.
As Come Out With Pride marched down Central Avenue, they also carried with them 49 placards, each with a name of a victim who died at the club.
“Honestly since the shooting we have just been keeping ourselves busy and focused on Pride, and I think for me personally the gravity of this whole thing didn’t hit home until I saw that,” Skains says.
As the sun set and the lights were turned on, the more than 150 floats and 4,500 marchers took down the parade route as the crowd screamed, danced and showed their Pride.
Once the parade and after parties had drained all of the energy possible, the crowds gathered it back up in force for the street festival on Central Ave. June 26.
Early estimates for the street festival puts the crowd between 50,000 to 60,000 people as they checked out the 350 vendors. Just as with every event, the memory of what happened at Pulse was fresh on everyone’s mind. Many of the vendors sold T-shirts, bracelets and other Pride materials with proceeds all going to either the victims’ families or the employees of Pulse.
Photos by Nicholas Cardello.
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