Colorful Celebrations: Last year’s Pride Parade was the biggest parade St. Petersburg has ever hosted. Now, city officials are facing controversy because the nest Pride Parade will be downtown instead of at Grand Central.
The Grand Central District may soon be losing one of its greatest traditions.
The St. Pete Pride Parade, which has called Central Avenue its home since its inception in 2003, is set to relocate to a new downtown waterfront route.
This announcement is being met with fierce opposition both on and off campus.
Karlana June, a Master’s candidate in Journalism and Media studies at USF St. Petersburg, is among those who are displeased.
“Not only does it take away from the businesses on Central, it almost feels like we are being pushed away from the center,” she said.
June’s primary focus of research is with the transgender population and misrepresentations by the news media. She also works closely with the local trans community.
“The local LGBTQ+ community has brought so much revenue and growth to the city of St. Pete over the past five years and this feels like a huge slap in the face,” June said.
June has attended both the parade and the ensuing festivals the last two years.
“Last year was incredibly moving because they started the parade with photos of all the Orlando victims. The quiet reverence in the crowds as the images and names passed by was beautiful and powerful,” she said.
For St. Pete Pride executive director Eric Skains, the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting was enough to prompt the need for a security overhaul. He told the Tampa Bay Times that this was the primary motive behind the move.
The new route takes the parade down Bayshore Drive in between Albert Whitted Park and Vinoy Park. The parade itself will take place June 24, with festivals taking place on both the day before and the day after.
Mayor Rick Kriseman stated that he will withhold city funding should the event move forward with the new venue. If that promise is upheld, the parade would miss out on $45,000.
Skains was confused by the mayor’s decision. According to him, Pride organizers met with Kriseman back in October when they agreed on the new route. Skains is insistent that they will not succumb to the pressure of the city’s financial withdrawal.
While Kriseman’s decision has elevated his status in the eyes of some of the LGBT community, others don’t see it that way.
Hannah Fizell, a junior at USFSP studying environmental policy, is upset with Kriseman.
“If the mayor cares for everyone and wants them to be safe, he wouldn’t do that,” Fizell said.
For Fizell, creating an open dialogue about the issue is the key to solving it. According to her, that isn’t what the mayor is doing.
“He seems more like a dictator that is just going to force it to be his way. He’s lost my vote,” Fizell said.
Despite not supporting the mayor’s decision to withhold funding, Fizell understands the frustration of local business owners. As someone who was born and raised in St. Petersburg, she recognizes that the Grand Central District “contributes a lot.”
But at the end of the day, she thinks that they’ve got to “look out for everyone’s best interest no matter what the cost” because “safety is more important than money.”
“As someone who is a lesbian and a Christian, and as someone who is fearful, it is safety over everything,” Fizell said.
Sacrificing this safety would defy the very spirit of the city she loves, Fizell asserts.
“Going [to the Pride parade] makes you feel reaffirmed and re-energized. You go to be surrounded by people that are just like you and are supportive. You feel 100 percent free,” she said.
But business owners still harshly criticize the intentions of the move. Mandy Keyes, owner of Community Cafe on Central Ave, doesn’t necessarily see security as the real issue.
“We all know that it’s not the reason,” Keyes said. “They tried to move it last year but they didn’t have enough excuses fleshed out so they backpedaled.”
Skains was able to build up enough momentum this year to get the board to vote for the move unanimously, recording only one abstention.
“They are killing the vibe of it by commercializing it and making it into another Ribfest. That’s not what gay pride is about,” Keyes said.
On St. Pete Pride’s official website the organization cites the fact that the proposed move downtown comes ahead of their bid for the 2021 WorldPride celebration.
Keyes is upset at the way Skains and the Pride board has gone about moving the parade.
“It has not been a very agreeable or transparent process. They kind of just snuck this in. It feels a little bit like someone is trying to take your children,” Keyes said.
In addition to concerns of impending commercialization and inauthenticity, there could also be tangible economic consequences.
“For bars and restaurants [along Central] it’s our busiest day by far,” Keyes said.
The Friday night festivities, which fall on the day before the parade, are still slated to take place on Central Ave.
“No matter what, Grand Central District is still going to be the gay pride district,” Keyes said.
Information from the Tampa Bay Times was used in this article.
