ABOVE: Tampa Pride’s planning meeting Dec. 13. Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent.
TAMPA | Tampa Pride held its 2023 planning meeting Dec. 13, welcoming more than 50 people to Ybor’s Hampton Inn Hotel & Suites for “the sole purpose of listening and sharing opinions and ideas.”
The public gathering followed the Dec. 5 resignation of Mark Bias, a co-founder of Tampa Pride’s current iteration. He most recently served as the organization’s secretary and festival director, roles he vacated Dec. 5.
Bias, also the partner of Tampa Pride President Carrie West, resigned after publicly sharing a derogatory social media post likening women who perform in drag to “Fake DRAG.” It drew widespread condemnation and prompted an apology from Tampa Pride itself.
“To our valued Tampa community: on behalf of Tampa Pride we want to reiterate our dedication to see progress in our community,” the organization’s board responded. “Your voices matter to us, and we understand that words are meaningless without action. Mark Bias has resigned his position from Tampa Pride effective immediately.
“We also must instill a renewed sense of community and trust in Tampa Pride,” they continued. “As always we would like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to attend the monthly meeting on 12/13.”
West told Watermark Dec. 6 that Bias is “very sorry” and noted that there are “no true feelings of negativity to the community from the board nor myself.” Bias did not respond to our requests for comment but read a prepared statement Dec. 10 on “Tru T,” a local web series.
“I wish to offer my deepest and most sincere apologies for my Facebook comments and my poor choices of words,” he said. “I have now been educated that cis women can be called drag queens. I have also stepped down from the Tampa Pride board. Our diverse community is constantly changing for the good and I have tried to stay up with all the changes.”
Bias subsequently reflected on his time serving the LGBTQ community in bars and storefronts, noting that he’s lost “important daily contact with our diverse community” in recent years. His statement closed by thanking those who educated him on drag while reiterating his apology to “our loving community.”
Tampa Pride’s Dec. 13 meeting began with a welcome from West, who reviewed upcoming events and initiatives. He detailed nominations for Tampa Pride’s 2023 grand marshals and the organization’s scholarship program. The meeting was primarily led by Tampa Pride Vice President Mark Eary.
“Thanks for coming out. I love to see this,” Eary began. “I love seeing the new faces, I love seeing the old faces. This is the beginning of where we put together Tampa Pride for 2023 … now is when we go out to the community and we want your input.”
Eary quickly fielded questions about the diversity of Tampa Pride’s five-person board.
“We need people that can step up and work with us,” he responded to calls for equitable representation. “You don’t just get on the board with no knowledge … we would love to see more board members added if we can. We’re talking about a lot of changes and I’m looking forward to all of them.
“We want to get a diverse group of people – we want all, everybody – except we don’t have any to pick from,” he continued. “This is the first meeting I have seen with this amount of people and I am so happy I could just fill up with tears, because this makes me feel what I do is worth it … we need you guys. It’s the only way we’re going to get more diverse.”
Speakers included Te Monet, a local entertainer who was approached within the last year to help guide Tampa Pride’s scholarship fund and festival. She’s being mentored by current leadership and was the first to directly address and apologize for Bias’ comments.
“As a member of this community, I’m excited,” Monet told Watermark afterwards. “Before we get into the fact that I’m a Black, trans woman, I’m a member of the community here and an entertainer. I’m excited about the way this board is growing and evolving, because Pride belongs to all of us.
“What happened was ugly, it was not a fun moment for any of us, but through tragedy amazing things can happen,” she continued. “We just have to be patient, we have to allow for people to grow and we have to allow ourselves to heal so we can get back to the fun again.”
Ronnie Angelique, also known as entertainer Angelique Young-Cavalier, also addressed attendees. She vowed to become more heavily involved to “see the changes I want to see.”
“There’s a lot of wonderful work that the Tampa Pride board does,” she told Watermark afterwards. “I noticed that the board didn’t have much diversity, even though they have a Diversity Parade and a lot of things that use the right verbiage. It really didn’t show that when I walked into the room being one of just a few people of color, and out of those, three of us were Black, trans women. That’s wild.”
Angelique says that her biggest takeaway was that Tampa Pride is heavily invested in expansion. She says it’s critical for supporters to become more involved for that to happen equitably.
“The change has to start with us,” she stresses. “I think it’s important that anyone who has an interest in Pride or wants to see things become better, they’re going to have to start to show up. It’s time for us to stand up and actually attend these meetings. I hope that more people do.”
Tampa Pride thanked attendees via social media Dec. 14, noting they “look forward to a stronger future” together. View their post below.
Tampa Pride is currently seeking volunteers for its 2023 celebration and more. Contact Volunteer Director Alex Barbosa at Alex@TampaPride.org to learn more. Watermark reached out to West for additional comment and will update this story should it be received. For more information about Tampa Pride, visit TampaPride.org.
