Pride Parade. Photo by City of St. Petersburg
Pride: More Than a Parade By Tina Stewart Brakebill Fifty-two years ago this June, patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City took a public stand. Pushing back against an election year escalation of officially sanctioned harassment, customers refused to quietly endure yet another police raid targeting the LGTBQ community. Word of their defiance spread and more people joined the protest. Ultimately, the Stonewall Uprising inspired a growing demand for “Gay Liberation” as evidenced by the commemorative marches held one year later in NYC, Chicago, and LA.
Pride Born from Adversity The need for this liberation was clear. In the decades before Stonewall, public scare campaigns plus discriminatory policies and laws increasingly targeted the LGTBQ community. Being “outed” as a gay or lesbian person could result in the loss of employment, shelter, custody of children, and even freedom. Locally, hundreds of “suspected homosexuals” in the Tampa Bay region lost jobs or were jailed for “crimes against nature” as a result of the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee’s nearly decade-long campaign of harassment. Given the very real risks, it is not surprising that members of early gay rights groups (like the Mattachine Society or the Daughters of Bilitis) often endeavored to keep their individual identities private as they lobbied for laws to protect the right to simply exist without harassment. The Stonewall Uprising and the movement it inspired marked a definitive shift in the fight for gay rights, stepping squarely into the public arena.
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GREENBENCHMONTHLY.COM / JUNE 2021
Shouting Gay Pride But this shift wasn’t just about bringing the fight into the light. Like the women’s liberation movement, the Gay Liberation movement demanded equality AND respect for identity. Liberation meant that social, civil, and legal equality should not be predicated on adherence to someone else’s definition of gendered “norms.” A sign at an early march may have said it best: “Gay is Proud.” As this simple message spread to more and more cities, annual marches to commemorate Stonewall grew into something more; they became avenues to shout their pride. By the 1980’s, most major cities in the U.S. held a wide variety of annual Pride events. But “Pride Parades”, in particular, offered the best opportunity for celebration along with commemoration as the LGBTQ community proudly, and loudly, demanded rights and respect.
Tampa Bay Pride The Bay region was a little late to the show; but in 1992, after some sporadic events in the 1980’s, the Greater Tampa Pride Organization (GTPO) initiated their annual Pridefest. The first Pridefest in Ybor City included a rally and short march. Over the next decade, the growing event rotated between St. Pete and Tampa before hitting some internal and external speed bumps. Internally, Pridefest Tampa Bay suffered from the effects of financial mismanagement. Externally, GTPO was dealt a blow when conservative Hillsborough County politicians
