Lakeland | Local advocates and allies will hold the fourth annual Polk Pride June 13-16 to celebrate LGBTQ diversity and inclusion in Polk County.
“If you’ve never been to Polk Pride, you’ve never experienced the best of what Pride can be,” Polk Pride’s president Scott Guira says. “Polk Pride is an opportunity for absolutely anybody in any age group and any background to come out to a Pride event and really feel like it is welcoming and it is the right place for them to be.”
Polk Pride was created in 2015 by the Lakeland Youth Alliance (LYA), dedicated to providing a safe space for LGBTQ youth ages 13-24, and PFLAG of Lakeland/Polk County. The latter is comprised of LGBTQ individuals, family members and allies who aim to provide awareness and support for those in the LGBTQ community.
“The two organizations together make up the board of Polk Pride,” Guira says, “and so really for us it was about doing more than creating a safe space. It’s about creating a safe community and having it centered as a family type event… an event that anybody could come to and find that they fit in.”
As Polk Pride has done each year, a theme and color of the rainbow were chosen to represent this year’s celebration. This year’s theme is “Proud To Be,” represented by the color green.
“Following the progression of the Pride rainbow of previous years, 2018’s color is green which represents nature or growth,” Polk Pride’s Dustin Shay says. “In creating our theme, Polk Pride envisioned this as sharing who we are proud to be.”
Proud to be who we were made to be, proud to be who we’ve grown to be and proud to be simply who we are,” he continues. “We want this year’s theme to celebrate anyone who is proud to be who they are… a parent, an ally, transgender, a person of color, a gay man or woman, an activist, etc. The list goes on.”
Over 4,000 attendees and over 70 unique vendors were a part of Polk Pride’s third year, and Guira says the fourth year will be the organization’s largest celebration yet. It will begin with an alcohol-free “Pride for Youth” event for LGBTQ youth ages 13-20, hosted by the LYA on June 13 at St. David’s Episcopal Church.
June 14 will see “Pride in Faith,” an interfaith worship service at the Beacon Hill Fellowship. “It’s a non-denominational event,” Guira says, noting it’s designed to show that local religious groups are open and affirming of Polk County’s LGBTQ community.
Polk Pride’s kick-off cocktail reception will follow on June 15 at the Peggy Brown Building. “It’s open to the public and we’ll have some silent auction items,” Guira says. “We’ll have a live performer that night and it provides an opportunity for people to mingle and get to know people.”
The main event will be held June 16 with “Pride in the Park” from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at Munn Park. “We’ll have 80-plus vendors,” Guira advises, “we’ve got a variety of activities going on for every age group, we’ve got food trucks and on the main stage we’ve got different [types of] entertainment.”
The main stage will feature drag performances coordinated by Tampa Bay entertainer Kathryn Nevets, music from St. Petersburg acoustic pop/rock duo Halcyon and more. “It’s a little bit of something for everybody,” Guira notes.
Polk Pride will subsequently wind down with “Pride After Dark,” an evening of drinks, drag and dancing. The closing party will be held at the LkldLive Studio from 9:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.
While Guira is excited about the event’s 2018 offerings, he’s particularly thrilled with the support Polk Pride has received from the county. “This is the first year that some of our smaller communities have made proclamations of Pride week,” he says. “So we’ve included smaller communities like Bartow, Mulberry and Haines City, which is a big deal in our community. It says a lot about the growth of the perception of our community.”
Guira says that reaching out to smaller communities in Polk County for Pride proclamations was “a shot in the dark” that paid off. “For the most part it’s been great,” he says, noting that the Mulberry commission approved their request unanimously.
“There were some concerns raised by a few citizens,” he recalls, “but overall, those who spoke at the commission meeting were very in favor of the idea of inclusion and the city making that proclamation. It was a great, great feeling for the smallest of our communities to recognize us.”
Polk Pride is “devoted to awareness, so that primarily is why we have public events in Polk County,” Guira believes. “We’re unlike any other Pride you go to. It’s got that downhome feel with big city fun. We’ve got all the great things but with a nice warm welcome.”
