“When I came out to my mom seven or eight years ago, I said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to get married to a man. Janet Cruz, who was unable to appear during the earlier part of the program.Īna Cruz relayed a personal message that she said speaks volumes about her mother’s character. The Equal Work for Equal Pay bill is being sponsored by Cruz’ mother, state Rep. “Now you tell me whether we need to shake things up in the House and Senate.” “That piece of legislation is making its way through committee, but our Equal Work for Equal Pay legislation is not,” Cruz said. Frank Artiles’ so-called “bathroom bill” that would make it illegal for a person to enter a public facility designated as single-sex if the person was not born a biological member of that sex. “And I couldn’t be happier to be the mayor that is in office when we bring back the pride parade.”ĭespite the good vibes, however, several speakers mentioned a couple of bills now percolating in the Florida Legislature that show the Sunshine State still has a way to go when it comes to fully accepting the LGBT community.ĭemocratic Party political strategist Ana Cruz denounced Miami Republican Rep. “It’s been a long time coming,” he told the crowd. There were several other public officials who had no problem appearing, including Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who opened the festivities a little after 10 a.m. White told the Tampa Bay Times that he just doesn’t agree with the proclamation, adding that he has “no interest in promoting hatred towards any person or group.” “Next time, we’re going to get all seven on board,” Beckner promised West. Newly elected board member Stacy White chose not to sign a proclamation that Beckner handed over to Tampa Pride organizer Carrie West at the beginning of Saturday’s activities.
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Not everyone on the current commission, though, approves of such an event. Petersburg in late June for the past decade, but opted to create their own event after the Hillsborough gay pride ban was repealed last year. They have enjoyed celebrating Gay Pride events in St. That’s what made Saturday’s event so meaningful for Tampa and Hillsborough residents. They say it simply amplified the hurt that they had initially encountered a decade before, when an earlier county commission board removed gays and lesbians from the county’s human rights ordinance.
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LGBT activists say that Hillsborough’s ugly history of sanctioning discrimination didn’t begin on that day nearly a decade ago. “I think it was a day when most of us felt a loss of our dignity, and the loss of our pride,” he said, recalling the event. In his public remarks, Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner referred to what he called one of the “darkest moments in this country’s history” - the June 15, 2005, vote by the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners to ban “gay pride” events. Members of the GLBT community and their allies flocked to Ybor City under idyllic conditions on Saturday, as Tampa held its first gay pride event in more than a decade.