Coalition: St. Pete Pride has become too ‘corporate’

St. Pete Pride’s biggest event – Saturday at 6 p.m. – is a parade that draws more than 300,000 people.

And while it serves as a source of great joy and celebration for many, not everyone in the LGBTQ+ community is happy about how this event – and others across the country – are run.

The People’s Pride Coalition was formed last year, in part, to protest against St. Pete’s corporate sponsors and use of law enforcement for security.

This will be the People’s Pride Coalition’s second year marching in the St. Pete Pride Parade with signs and banners professing its beliefs about such events, but today (Friday, June 28), members are putting on their own celebration at the Allendale United Methodist Church at 3803 Haines Rd. St. Pete, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Coalition members balk at the practice of “rainbow washing,” when companies show superficial support for the LGBTQ+ community without making meaningful, substantive changes to support queer rights and inclusion.

V is a member of the coalition and also a queer person. We’re using their first name to protect their privacy.

“We don’t want to be cheering for a float for GE Aerospace or Jabil or Mosaic or Walmart, so considering the history of Pride as a resistance, we wanted to make sure that that was still being represented in modern and contemporary Pride celebrations,” V said.

V also said St. Pete Pride has cut out about $100,000 worth of corporate sponsorship this year in response to their efforts.

The coalition is also pushing local Pride celebrations to hire private security firms instead of police officers to protect those celebrating at not only the parade, but also other events throughout June.

They cite the history of the Stonewall Uprising, a series of riots by members of the LGBTQ+ community against police raids of a gay bar in June 1969.

The uprising – which is often cited as the pivotal point for the queer rights movements in the United States and even globally – serves as the foundation for June pride events across the country.

Gabby Aguilera, who is queer, is also a member of the coalition. “In terms of private security, there’s little more control over, obviously, who we are hiring, who we are bringing into our community,” Aguilera stated. “And police exist to protect the system. They exist to protect these capitalist structures.”

Aguilera cited Pasco Pride, which is a much smaller event that hires private security guards over police. She said that’s something other Pride events should consider.

“[The police] exist to protect a lot of the structures that are oppressing our communities. So we have a little more control over private security when it comes to who we’re bringing in, how we’re able to vet them, and what they are actually there to protect,” Aguilera said.

Right now, especially with larger Pride celebrations, organizers are contractually obligated to hire local law enforcement officers because the festivities are on public property. To make the switch, they’d have to plan events on private property to avoid using police.

“A suggestion that we gave them, after talking with Pasco Pride and having some meetings with Pasco Pride board members as well, is to look at maybe doing the [St. Pete] Pride Parade on land that’s not necessarily owned by the city, on private land or unincorporated land even, and maybe driving that economic impact further into the peninsula, instead of in an area that’s already affluent and that’s profiting off tourism dollars this whole time,” V said.

The People’s Pride Coalition is one of many similar groups across the country aiming to bring Pride celebrations back to their protest roots.

But they still acknowledge how deeply powerful Pride celebrations can be for folks in places like Florida, which has passed several anti-LGBTQ bills in the past few years, particularly those that impact transgender people.

“We know that these Pride celebrations, in a deep red state, that they are important to have a place where people can come and celebrate, but we want them to be safe,” Aguilera said.

“We want people to be actually celebrating actual queer and trans liberation, actual joy, actual, like, our actual lives and community, and I think we just don’t want to be doing that while cheering for floats that represent companies that are bombing our communities, that are literally killing us.”

At tonight’s event, attendees can expect to see performers, singer/songwriters, a rapper, DJs and drag performances.

“We figured we wanted to try to put on an event that kind of like led by example, where we do not have the police there,” V said. “We are going to have our own security team.”

The organizers also want the event to be as accessible as possible, so the entry fee will be a suggested donation, a pay-what-you-can situation where no one will be turned away.

Food and beverages will be provided by Tampa and St Pete’s “Food, Not Bombs” group, as well as beverages. And guests can “shop” at a free store stocking gender-affirming items like wigs, binders and makeup.

For more information, visit the People’s Pride Coalition Instagram page.

Daylina Miller is a multimedia journalist for WUSF, the NPR station for the greater Tampa Bay area.