People holding rainbow Pride fans and flags at the gates of St. Pete Pride — Credit: Dave Decker

Being an LGBTQ+ Floridian right now feels like the parable of the boiling frog. As more extreme anti-DEI legislation passes each year, we stay hoping the bubbles of hate will somehow cool off.

And then one day, we wake up and rainbow crosswalks are illegal, local governments are banned from supporting Pride and Trump is equating trans allyship with terrorism.

So are we cooked?

“No,” says St. Pete Pride president Byron Green-Calisch. The three years he’s been leading the organization have been the most difficult of his life, which also includes raising a trans child, he told CL. But he’s far from losing hope.

“We’re tartare at this point, but not cooked. The fight is nowhere close to actually just starting, so if you think we are cooked, please hear me loudly saying, ‘Baby. They haven’t turned on the stove.’”

Anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans “want you to feel like there’s no hope, that there’s no opportunity to fight back, but there absolutely positively is,” he continued.

“Here Comes the Sun” is the theme for the month of celebrations, chosen as a message of hope and an acknowledgement of dark times.

For the nonprofit—which throws the biggest Pride parade in the Southeast U.S. and claims to have a larger economic impact than the Firestone Grand Prix—that darkness looks like $150,000 lost from sponsorships, either due to the declining economy or to cater to anti-DEI Republicans. A new state law that severs its ties with local governments starting Jan. 1 means $150,000 more will be lost in city support, Green-Calisch told CL.

Being at Pride is the most American thing that you could do
St. Pete Pride president Byron Green-Calisch

The organization is still expanding, taking over Sapphic St. Pete to host its weeklong celebration in the fall. But the group will rely on more than ever on residents to pull off its 25th anniversary celebration next year.

“You’ll see us be very upfront about fundraising,” Green-Calisch said. “In the past, we have been a little bit more muted about what support looks like for St. Pete Pride, but you are going to hear me full-throatedly ask for support…In order for us to continue to exist as an organization going into our 25th year, we won’t be able to do it without the support of our community.”

Green-Calisch added that St. Pete Pride also lost sponsors and co-presenters among a wave of trans people fleeing the state for their safety (the frogs who left the pot).

Still, Green-Calisch is confident in a more grassroots future of St. Pete Pride.

“As an organization that is built on the backs of a riot, it’s important for us to remember that our resilience is baked into our history,” he said. On his hardest days, he reflects on a picture of Stonewall-era trans activist Marsha P. Johnson framed in his office.

“I know if she could do the work that she did in a community that did not love her back the way that she wanted to be loved, but still advocated for it, we can do the work that we have ahead of us,” Green-Calisch said.

Modern Pride celebrations are far from the Stonewall uprising of 1969, where Johnson smashed the windshield of a cop car in the six days of violence that resulted from a police raid of a New York City gay bar.

St. Pete Pride faces criticism from local organizers who feel unheard by the organization and want St. Pete Pride to stop taking money from unethical corporations and help from cops who agreed to work with immigration.

But Green-Calisch maintains that showing up to Pride is vital for a strong LGBTQ+ community.

“The biggest instance of resistance is joy, and being able to celebrate loudly and publicly,” he said.

“Being at Pride is the most American thing that you could do—celebrating living authentically and truly who you are, without any interference from anyone, specifically the government.”

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