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Pete Pride has taken over the central St. "I guess we're open now."įor the past 14 years, St. PETERSBURG - Tom Rockhill didn't know what to expect Saturday, but by noon people were knocking on the door of his bar Right Around the Corner in Grand Central. Rick Claggett is a long-time employee of Watermark Media and former board member of both the Metropolitan Business Association and Come Out With Pride. Watermark Publishing Group, founded by publisher Rick Claggett, purchased Watermark in January of 2016. The award-winning newspaper currently maintains offices in Tampa Bay and Orlando and employs a full-time staff of 12, along with several part-time and freelance contributors.
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#ST PETERSBURG FLORIDA GAY PRIDE PARADE FREE#
The newspaper donates more than $200,000 annually in free and sponsor advertising to worthy local and national LGBT non-profits. Watermark prints up to 20,000 copies every other Thursday, and distributes them in more than 500 locations throughout Orlando, Tampa Bay, Sarasota and throughout the state. Dyer is an attorney, former board member of the Metropolitan Business Association and Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and current advisory board member of the Harvey Milk Foundation. Watermark Media was founded by Tom Dyer in Orlando in 1994, and expanded to Tampa Bay in 1995. Watermark is a multi-faceted media company using opportunities and innovations to communicate and advance LGBT interests, with a corporate emphasis on professionalism while building strong relationships with our readers, customers and community. The LGBTQ infusion in the district continues to this day.īrian Longstreth, 61, served as St Pete Pride co-chair for two years and in other capacities until 2009. Our mayor at the time was conservative but didn’t seem to mind as long as the events were in the Grand Central District. St Pete Pride had become a model for many other Pride organizations by focusing on local support and inclusive policies. In 2007 representatives from St Pete Pride attended the InterPride conference in Zurich, Switzerland and won the right to host InterPride 2009. All told, an estimated 10,000 attended the inaugural event, and we knew we had a good model for success.įree to attend, affordable for small businesses to participate and sponsors to cover the costs. The stories that first year stay with me, from a young family setting up across from Seminole Park in Historic Kenwood to watch the Promenade saying, “we wanted to teach our children about diversity” to the teenager who used the Pride Celebration to come out to his parents, to the 80-year-old gentleman who said he remained faithful to his wife until she passed and he was able to be himself.Īttendance doubled almost every year to quickly become the largest Pride celebration in Florida by 2007. Throughout the day people kept arriving and swamping the few bars and restaurants in the Grand Central District at the time. With no experience to go on, and no social media (this was pre-Facebook) to help gauge the response, we were expecting maybe 2,000-2,500 people to show up. About 50 vendors lined the two blocks as the parade and large rainbow flag was unfurled. The promenade wound through Historic Kenwood and then on to Central Avenue heading East towards the Street Festival in the 24 blocks of Central.
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It started in Historic Kenwood in front of the old Georgie’s Alibi which had become a fixture in the community as a bar and restaurant. It wasn’t a parade or a march but was free for anyone to participate. We were planning on maybe 100 people participating in the newly named Promenade, a name that came to me while sitting in a bar in Key West and seeing an event poster there. Pete and was a natural to lead the Promenade. Greg Stemm had worked with the Festival of States Parade in St. Carol Scianommeo, a former New York City policewoman offered to handle security.Įllen Levett brought her years of experience of working with Long Island Pride. Petersburg Times, took on sponsorship, Robert Danielson in the City of St Petersburg’s marketing department created much of the imaging under the radar of former Mayor Rick Baker. Ed Cassidy, the marketing manager for the St. People of all backgrounds jumped in and provided expertise in marketing, sponsorship, parade planning and vendor management. Owner Wayne Palmer made the first donation that night of $100 before we even had a checking account. We hosted a community meeting in late February of 2003 at DT’s Bar on Central and over 100 people showed up, starting essentially from zero. We were on such a short time frame following the implosion of Tampa Bay Pride in 2002.