Not every Pride protester is a homophobe with a megaphone and a cardboard sign reading “REPENT.” This year, a large contingent of protesters of St. Pete Pride will be gay and transgender individuals who believe the event has strayed from Pride’s roots by partnering with the police, weapons manufacturers, and businesses who—according to dissidents—don’t represent the progressive values historically associated with the Pride movement.
People’s Pride Coalition (PPC) consists of local organizations, including Tampa Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Justice Advocacy Network, the Tampa Democratic Socialists of America, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization of Tampa. PPC formed in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and Israel’s ensuing attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
V, an organizer with PPC, says that Israel’s abhorrent treatment of Palestinians led many people to learn more about the ties between Israel and their own communities. It also led people to boycott companies they deemed complicit in the violence, and to protest U.S. support for the Israeli military. V and other activists seized this momentum to create a coalition within the LGBTQ+ community, with a mission to “return Pride to its roots” as a celebration of resistance against oppression.
The first Pride parade occurred to commemorate 1969 riots against the police following a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. For many years, Pride largely represented being proud of one’s identity in defiance of an oppressive society and government. Pride’s meaning was often intertwined with solidarity for broader progressive and antifascist views, including anti-apartheid and anti-nuclear-weapon sentiments. As gay and trans people gained more social and legal acceptance, Pride celebrations became more widely respected, and corporations began to view Pride as an advertising opportunity. According to PPC, Pride should not just be a corporatized event, but should also be a protest—not just for gay and trans liberation, but for the liberation of all people.
V asks: “When there are weapons manufacturers that are sending money to fund Pride, we have to be thinking: is this something that we want queerness to be represented by? If a bomb drops and it’s rainbow colored, is it still a bomb?”
PPC had a meeting with several St. Pete Pride board members last July and presented them with a list of demands. This included a “naughty list” of Pride partners who they say fail to uphold Pride’s historical role as a radical and progressive movement. One such sponsor on the list is GE Aerospace, one of the world’s largest military contractors, who manufactures parts to be used in weapons worldwide.
The company provided engines for Israel’s F-16 fighter jets, which were used in 2021 to bomb residential buildings in Gaza along with Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices. St. Pete Pride also partners with Mosaic, a Fortune 500 fertilizer company operating phosphate mines across Florida. In 2016, a sinkhole formed under one of
Mosaic’s mining operations causing 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater to be released into Florida aquifers. In 2021, a leak at another site posed a flood threat to local communities, so 215 million gallons of wastewater were released into Tampa Bay. Recently, Mosaic has proposed injecting its wastewater thousands of feet underground beneath aquifers, receiving legal challenges from environmentalist groups. PPC says that participation from companies such as these distances Pride from its history as a march against oppression.
PPC also doesn’t want the police at the parade. They say police presence makes members of the community feel unsafe, particularly Black trans people who, per the ACLU, are most likely to experience physical force by the police among all LGBTQ+ people.Now that the St. Pete Police Department has partnered with ICE through the 287(g) program, PPC worries that immigrants will be discouraged from attending the parade.
“I wouldn’t blame any immigrant for not coming to Pride if there’s a police presence,” says V, “but then they can’t celebrate who they are. There is no joy. There is no resilience. There is no connecting with the community, … and that’s the whole purpose of Pride.”Other demands from PPC include that St. Pete Pride commit to boycotting all products that fund or support genocide, and that Pride leadership be educated on pinkwashing. St. Pete Pride reportedly told PPC that they would make an attempt to meet the latter of these demands with a presentation to board members. St. Pete Pride did not follow up to confirm whether this presentation ever took place.
PPC says their goal is not to protest Pride as a whole, but to encourage St. Pete Pride to better represent Pride’s history. PPC is attempting to work directly with St. Pete Pride to demonstrate how they can meet these demands. For example, law often requires a contract with the St. Petersburg Police Department for an event that involves road closures or alcohol consumption, but PPC says that they’d like for St. Pete Pride to explore whether or not they could skirt this restriction by holding the event on unincorporated territory without alcohol. PPC also suggests relying entirely on private security rather than contracting with the police. PPC says that this year’s focus is on illustrating the ways in which their demands are achievable to show that they are driven by more than just idealism.
Byron Green-Calisch, board president of St. Pete Pride, issued the following statement to The Sapphic Sun:
“Let’s set the record straight—we have never and will never work with ICE agents. It is completely antithetical to the very core of our mission. For 22 years, our primary commitment is and has always been to ensure safety and enjoyment of our community and all participants involved at our Pride events. For the last five years, as our Pride celebrations have grown, the City of St. Petersburg has graciously partnered with us in order to provide ample space and security for St Pete Pride’s 500,000+ attendees annually. This year will be no different. … We are honored to have mission-aligned sponsors who invest, volunteer, and support our robust LGBTQIA2S+ communities who gather here from across the Southeast region. We have also been in active and productive communication with the People’s Pride Coalition, and look forward to more ongoing discussions with their team.”While Green-Calisch says that St. Pete Pride will never work with ICE agents, he did not comment on the St. Petersburg Police Department’s partnership with ICE through the 287(g) program. Green-Calisch also says that St. Pete Pride’s sponsors are “mission-aligned.” He does not address any concerns about unethical practices by some of these sponsors, and does not clarify how the sponsors are aligned with St. Pete Pride’s mission statement, which reads: “To strengthen St. Petersburg’s legacy of inclusion and diversity, providing a safe space for the education, self-exploration, and celebration of our LGBTQIA+ community and allies. By championing equity and representation, we aim to create an open and compassionate community where people are empowered to thrive. No matter who they are.”
While St. Pete Pride declined to provide The Sapphic Sun with reasons why they have not accommodated PPC’s demands for eliminating police presence and dropping sponsors, PPC remains committed to pushing for a more progressive Pride.
[content-1] “We’re aware as a coalition that we are playing the long game, and that doesn’t deter us,” V says. “The immediate gratification of getting all of our demands met in a year is probably unrealistic, because there’s so much change that needs to happen on St. Pete Pride’s end.”
They also say their demands will continue to evolve with the landscape; this year they added a demand that St. Pete Pride ban ICE and DHS presence from its events.
“We’re gonna add more and more demands the more and more that we see Pride diverging from its roots as an uprising, as a tool for liberation for queer people.”
This post first appeared in the June edition of the Sapphic Sun.
