Tampa Pride will not get in-chamber commendation from Hillsborough commissioners

Tampa’s Pride parade celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend, but Carrie West said this has never happened before. For the last nine years, Hillsborough’s Board of County Commissioners has presented a Pride commendation inside the board chambers—not this time.

“It does really hurt,” West, President of Tampa Pride, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that getting the commendation is about more than taking pictures.

He said that Pride also takes that time to update the board (BOCC) on the progress of programs like the scholarships for college and trade school that the organization offers to members of the LGBTQ+ community who demonstrate financial need. This year, Pride added an interfaith service and 5K run as part of Pride week activities. Members also upped their gift giving during the holidays. Being in front of the board lets the community know that Tampa Pride is out there all year.

“This isn't just about a small group of people. This is really about the whole. It's all about the LGBT brothers and sisters from all avenues, and it's also a day of celebration,” West said.

Emails West shared with CL show that in early-February he and Hillsborough County’s communications and digital media team worked together to make sure the commendation included all of the updates. West and members of his Pride team were supposed to receive the award on March 6.

But public records obtained by CL show that on Valentine’s Day, an aide for Commissioner Pat Kemp delivered the news that the 2024 commendation would not happen as planned. The aide cited a new policy enacted in September 2023, which, in part, requires six signatures for commendations that are deemed “controversial or sensitive because they address matters of political controversy, ideological, or religious beliefs; one’s individual conviction; or address matters which do not serve a public interest.”

“Only 4 Commissioners signed it this year. Therefore, there will no longer be a presentation of this important Commendation at the BOCC meeting, as we hoped to have,” the aide added.

Three Democrats—Kemp, Harry Cohen, and Gwen Myers—and one Republican, Board Chairman Ken Hagan, signed the 2024 Tampa Pride Street Festival and Diversity Parade commendation. The board’s most conservative members, Joshua Wostal, Board Vice Chair Michael Owen, and Board Chaplain Donna Cameron Cepeda did not.

The county says that commendations are meant to “recognize important dates and causes, and to celebrate the significant contributions of businesses, groups, and individuals to the people of Hillsborough County.”

Last summer, Cepeda presented a commendation to a Tampa pastor with a well-documented history of spreading dangerous conspiracy theories—like mass shootings are false flags and the COVID-19 pandemic was planned by Bill Gates.
Cepeda, along with Wostal, Owen, Hagan and Myers, did not respond to requests for comments on the commendation.

Cohen, who presented the Pride commendation in 2023, told CL he is disappointed that there will not be an official commendation this year. Kemp, who will instead celebrate and present a version of the commendation with four signatures on it this Saturday ahead of the parade added, “It’s very discouraging and hurtful that three Republican board members are refusing to celebrate LGBTQ Pride in Hillsborough County.”

Tampa City Council, however, did issue and present a proclamation to Tampa Pride on March 7, with all councilmembers signing.

West said that the development brought him a bit back to 2005 when then Commissioner Ronda Storms successfully got the county to ban “acknowledging, promoting or participating in gay pride recognition and events, little g, little p."

That ban was not lifted until 2013 when Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough County’s first openly gay commissioner, led the charge towards a 7-0 vote to repeal.

Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who’ll serve as a grand marshall in this weekend’s parade, was pivotal in launching the city’s Pride parade and in 2013 also encouraged the BOCC to repeal the ban, saying it was the right thing to do, and good for business, too.

Buckhorn told CL he was saddened by the current BOCC’s failure to present the commendation in the chamber. He noted how far the community has progressed in the last 15-20 years and reiterated his belief that the step back is also not good for economic development.

“We are known for tolerance and celebrating our diversity is a strength,” Buckhorn told CL. “I think it's short sighted. I hoped that we had come further than that, and we would never end up in these kinds of discussions again, and that everyone's value would be recognized and that everyone's diversity would be celebrated—that's what makes us different as a city and makes us better as a city.”
With just a few days left to tie up loose ends before the parade, West looked ahead to Saturday. He told CL he was proud of all the new Pride celebrations popping up in smaller communities in Texas, Wisconsin, and even locally in places like North Pinellas and Lakeland.

“People in the communities feel very secure about themselves. They also want them to have an identity and to show that they are workers in their communities,” West said. “Small towns are starting to grow, and that is where Pride is going to go.”

Where Tampa Pride goes is also a question West and the community have been faced with recently.

Last year the Tampa Pride organization came under scrutiny during fallout from an incident where a senior pastor at Tampa’s Metropolitan Community Church of Tampa was repeatedly misgendered by West. Axios also reported that a Pride board member stepped down last year after a statement saying that shows involving women in drag "should be called fake drag." There’ve also been calls for the Pride board to diversify, and even trans musicians have written songs after feeling out of place at Pride parades from the past.

Tampa Pride and West both issued apologies, and organizers have worked to make the parade more diverse and reflective of Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

Luis Salazar, President of the Hillsborough County LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus noted that his community has been fighting for unity and finding ways for themselves to participate in the fight for equality.

“Tampa Pride, like many organizations, has issues and appears to be working towards fixing them. It's important that we celebrate who we are and spread the message of voting for those who support our community,” Salazar added. “The inner workings of Tampa Pride, which is celebrating 10 years of Tampa's commitment to LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion, will have to take a long, hard look at themselves to see if they are meeting that commitment and make changes accordingly.”
On the first episode of her new WMNF-Tampa radio show “Wide Awake America,” Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida detailed an exchange she had with someone who said he was worried about the anger that arises when someone gets a pronoun wrong. Smith told the person that even she’s not been perfect when it comes to misgendering people.

“It usually happens when the person isn't present that you go, ‘Oh, I didn't know they went by “they,” thanks.’ And it's this simple, ‘My bad, thanks,’ and you move on with your life,” Smith said. “So this idea that you will be called out, you'll be shamed, you will be attacked, has tapped into a fear of public humiliation that is so outsized to the actual issue. The thing that you're afraid of doesn't happen. And if it did happen, how is that person's reaction any different than how your reaction would be if you were misgendered?”

Reps for Equality Florida declined to comment on the last year’s turbulence at Tampa Pride, which includes some criticism of the choice to have Buckhorn as a grand marshall.

While the former Tampa mayor was inarguably key to Tampa’s Pride parade becoming a reality, he also supported Tampa native, and Republican, Pam Bondi, who went on to become Florida’s Attorney General and a defender of Florida’s since repealed ban on same-sex marriage.

Echoing past statements, Buckhorn—who in 2012 did sign a local law creating the Bay area's first domestic partnership registry—told CL, “​​I did what was good for Tampa.”

The former mayor warmed up to gay marriage, first telling the Tampa Bay Times he wasn’t “entirely there yet,” before admitting that his views had evolved two years later. “​​As mayor, I have a responsibility to make sure that our community treats everyone fairly," he told the paper.

“I've also supported people who may feel differently, and Pam was from Tampa. She was a friend of mine. You know, this was long before she got really political in her job,” Buckhorn told CL.

Salazar told CL that the former mayor is not the LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus’ first choice for grand marshall, but did acknowledge Buckhorn’s role in bringing the Pride parade to the community.

“We are grateful for that,” Salazar added. “Our fight for equality is still ongoing, which is why we must stay visible and continue to speak to voters about the future we fight for.”
West still has a lot of fight left in him, too. He told CL that he butted heads with Buckhorn on his support of Bondi, and most certainly the six-foot rule for lap dancers that Buckhorn supported when he was on city council.

Before asking Buckhorn to be grand marshall, the two met for what was supposed to be a coffee. “We ended up talking for five hours,” West said.

And while his connections to Tampa Pride go all the way back to the early-’80s when Pride was a 20-person picnic on a lawn at the University of South Florida, West doesn’t know when he’ll walk away from leading the organization.

He noted that Pride is supposed to be for everyone, regardless of age, race, or gender. “I want to see everybody out there enjoying themselves. It's going to be a beautiful day,” he said.

And to those who think Tampa Pride could be better?

“Volunteer,” West said. “We have open positions.”
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