The popularity of the festivals celebrating LGBTQ equality speaks to the progress the community has made in being embraced by society as a whole — especially given marriage rights and well-publicized legislative wins, like Tampa’s nascent ban on “conversion therapy.” But all the celebrating may lead some attendees to forget how vulnerable that hard-fought equal treatment really is in 2017 — especially those who weren’t around when same-sex couples were hesitant to hold hands in public and openly gay people could only socialize in certain bars.
Tampa Pride itself is a case in point. Hillsborough County, which was governed by a lopsidedly staunch conservative county commission for years, only recently began to recognize the event. In 2005, then-Commissioner Ronda Storms uttered her notorious “little g, little p” quip while discussing a measure that barred the county from supporting the event, to the apparent horror of then-Commissioner Kathy Castor, who is now a Democratic Congresswoman from Tampa.
Former Commissioner Kevin Beckner spearheaded countywide LGBTQ protections in 2014, and his colleagues were largely accepting. But in 2016, when he asked his colleagues to recognize June as Pride Month in the county in the days immediately following the Pulse nightclub massacre, they declined. A majority of commissioners did allow him to hoist the rainbow flag over the County Center for the remainder of June, which to some was better than nothing.
“Hillsborough County is very good right now in what we’ve done,” says West, “but remember it wasn’t that long ago we changed that law, we changed the charter.”
And at a time when anti-equality right wing voices have been emboldened at the local, state and federal levels, anything can happen.
At the state level, activists are hoping lawmakers will vote to enhance protections for the LGBTQ community during the legislative session currently underway, by way of a perennial bill they’re pushing that would bar discrimination statewide. While advocates publicly say the Competitive Workforce Act is inching forward, and say it does better in Florida’s conservative legislature every year, it likely will not get a nod from the majority of conservative lawmakers in Tallahassee this year.
That lawmakers wouldn’t see the bill as a win-win is perplexing to its backers.
“It’s the kind of legislation that would encourage businesses to relocate to Florida by encouraging a much more inclusive, diverse environment for millennials, for LGBTQ people and for young families,” said Hannah Willard, legislative director for Equality Florida. “At the end of the day, we all agree that discrimination is wrong. And we all agree that we want Florida’s economy to be thriving. It’s just that we sometimes have different ideas about how to accomplish that.”
There is instead a greater likelihood that lawmakers will support HB 17, a measure that could abolish local protections passed at the city level. The measure would kill all local regulations on businesses, including anti-discrimination laws that bar businesses from firing employees for being gay or trans.
As far as things seem to have progressed for the LGBTQ community and its allies, advocates also point to the statistics, especially for youth, as evidence that there’s still a long way to go. While the Trump administration wants to roll back Obama-era protections for trans kids requiring schools to let them use the restroom they’re most comfortable using, LGBTQ youth are already dealing with higher rates of absenteeism, bullying, suicidality, addiction and other harmful things.
And even for adults, there’s been a noticeable rise in hate crimes targeting gay couples as well as trans people, which some advocates attribute to the rise of Donald Trump. The president hasn’t blatantly verbalized homophobia, but he has surrounded himself with people who have, which may have encouraged his supporters to act on their worst prejudices. Accordingly, events such as Tampa Pride where individuals can come together — and recognize they’re not alone — can be crucial.
“Prides are essential for raising awareness of key issues that affect LGBTQ young people and adults,” said Emery Grant, director of community engagement with the Stonewall National Museum and Archives. “And so while it may be a wonderful party to enjoy, taking up space with affirmations of ourselves, we’re taking up space to provide positive modeling for our young people and to show our communities that there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
With the future of political support for equality in flux, Pride festivals offer not-so-subtle messages from allies offering sponsorships (disclosure: CL is a sponsor) or simply by participating. Anyone who has been to a Pride event in recent years has likely noticed the almost overwhelming corporate presence. While a skeptic may view it as shameless self-promotion, West sees it differently.
“The gay community really recognizes brand. And I don’t think a lot of corporations, a lot of businesses realize [that],” he said. “If [LGBTQ people] see a brand in a Pride event, no matter where it is — it might be Sprint, it might be AT&T, it might be Delta Airlines, it might be Nissan, but guess what — if you don’t see any of the major companies that are competing against those in any industry, you start thinking guess what, I’m going to go with a company that supports me.”
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2017.