[Editor’s Note: CL asked the 2015 St. Pete Pride Parade Grand Marshals — Larry Biddle, Ashley Brundage, Nick Janovsky and Stonewall Democrats of Pinellas (represented by its president, Susan McGrath) — to talk about the experiences that have inspired their work with the community. The interviews, conducted via email, were condensed and edited for publication.]
LARRY BIDDLE: Building the future
Since moving to the Tampa Bay area in 2004, Larry Biddle has been an instrumental figure in the local LGBT community and has been deeply involved in the area’s cultural and political life. Utilizing his expertise as a leading national fundraiser for more than 47 years, in 2014 he helped raise more than $120,000 to renovate and open Metro Wellness’s LGBT Welcome Center. Biddle was also the chair of the 2015 Equality Florida Greater St. Petersburg Gala, and co-chaired last year’s record-breaking event with special guest Edie Windsor, the winning plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court decision that upended the Defense of Marriage Act. Prior to this, Biddle served as executive director of the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival from 2012-14. His company, Planning Works LLC, which specializes in nonprofit organizational development, is currently working to raise funds for the Warehouse Arts District Association to renovate 50,000 square feet of warehouse space in St. Petersburg for artists' studios, a gallery, a performance venue and arts education facilities.
Reflecting on your life, what are some of the key moments from your own personal LGBT history?
My LGBT life started at age 30. I came out, moved, and started learning what my community was and how I could fit in. After living in Chicago, Long Island, New York and then Washington, D.C., I hadn’t found that place yet. I had raised millions of dollars to help a variety of charitable organizations in those cities, but none specific to LGBT service.
I then moved to Philadelphia, having had a close friend die of AIDS and being motivated to do something about this new tragic disease. That’s when I was hired as ActionAIDS’ first director of development. I hit my stride then. I met my now-husband [CL Editor in Chief David Warner], who was a volunteer at ActionAIDS at the time. I was madly in love and finally realized that I was worthy of being loved (a hard lesson learned, as one has to erase that unworthiness instilled and reinforced by society’s norms).
My successful ActionAIDS fundraising department staff and I invented a new event called Dining Out for Life. After four years, I took it to other AIDS service organizations throughout the country and now it’s a thriving annual event raising more than $4.25 million last year to fight AIDS. Also, 22 years ago I helped establish the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, a permanent endowment to support Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware LGBT people and their allies. Last year it allocated grants between $5,000 and $10,000 in support of Philadelphia-area LGBT communities.
What are some of your more memorable experiences working with the local LGBT community?
After seven years living in the Tampa Bay area, I became the executive director of the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for two years. Then I was hired to be development director for a new Metro Wellness and Community Center venture, the nation’s third LGBT Welcome Center. I raised the funds for the restoration of an historic home into a center housing a coffee shop, LGBT travel center and, most importantly, [a conduit for services to] homeless LGBT youth. Metro has been operating the center for almost a year now. I also serve on the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Task Force.
What are some occasions in LGBT history that have inspired your community involvement?
Maybe more than occasions it was the heroic work of inspirational leaders such as Barbara Gittings in Philadelphia (whom I counted as a friend) who helped stage the first annual public demonstration for gay and lesbian equality at Independence Hall 50 years ago on July 4, 1965. Then the Stonewall riots in 1969 and Harvey Milk’s election in San Francisco as city supervisor and his subsequent assassination, that inspired us all to advocate for equality and justice for LGBT people. The AIDS epidemic was horrific and engrossed many lesbians and gay men, especially Larry Kramer, to lead the charge to save lives and raise hell to stop the silence about so many deaths in our community. What an amazing time of action and leadership.
In 1993, the movie Philadelphia was filmed in the offices of ActionAIDS. Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks were among us, trying to understand HIV/AIDS and tell Ron Nyswaner’s amazing story of discrimination against a person living with AIDS. Director Jonathan Demme employed ActionAIDS clients as extras for the film. Before the premiere, one of the clients who had made it into the final cut was near death, and it seemed likely he wouldn’t see himself on the big screen. Demme had a copy of the film couriered to his Philadelphia home so he could see himself in the movie. He never did see the film in a theater.
It was a tough time, but we must still recognize that the crisis has not ended. Hillsborough County now has the highest level of HIV/AIDS of any Florida county.
As the fight for equality moves forward, what are some changes you hope to see in your lifetime?
We need to rekindle the fight to reduce HIV/AIDS. It’s increasing at a time when there are preventives. I also don’t think anyone anywhere is adequately recognizing that there are hundreds of LGBT homeless youth in our communities. Where are they and who’s helping them? I can’t get the answer to that question when I ask it. I fear they are among those targeted for trafficking and abuse. That shouldn’t be acceptable.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2015.