We were on such a short time frame following the implosion of Tampa Bay Pride in 2002.
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.
Owner Wayne Palmer made the first donation that night of $100 before we even had a checking account. People of all backgrounds jumped in and provided expertise in marketing, sponsorship, parade planning and vendor management. Ed Cassidy, the marketing manager for the St. 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. Carol Scianommeo, a former New York City policewoman offered to handle security.
Ellen Levett brought her years of experience of working with Long Island Pride. Greg Stemm had worked with the Festival of States Parade in St. Pete and was a natural to lead the Promenade. 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.
It wasn’t a parade or a march but was free for anyone to participate. 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. The promenade wound through Historic Kenwood and then on to Central Avenue heading East towards the Street Festival in the 2400 and 2500 blocks of Central. About 50 vendors lined the two blocks as the parade and large rainbow flag was unfurled. 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.
Throughout the day people kept arriving and swamping the few bars and restaurants in the Grand Central District at the time. All told, an estimated 10,000 attended the inaugural event, and we knew we had a good model for success.
Free 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.
Attendance doubled almost every year to quickly become the largest Pride celebration in Florida by 2007. In 2007 representatives from St Pete Pride attended the InterPride conference in Zurich, Switzerland and won the right to host InterPride 2009. St Pete Pride had become a model for many other Pride organizations by focusing on local support and inclusive policies.
Our mayor at the time was conservative but didn’t seem to mind as long as the events were in the Grand Central District. The LGBTQ infusion in the district continues to this day.
Brian Longstreth, 61, served as St Pete Pride co-chair for two years and in other capacities until 2009. He also co-founded Come OUT St. Pete.
