Photo courtesy Come OUT St. Pete.
ST. PETERSBURG | Come OUT St. Pete will hold its 2023 Royal Court Pageant Sept. 24 at the VFW Post 39, crowning its next set of representatives ahead of the organization’s seventh year.
COSP was founded to celebrate National Coming Out Day in 2017, which has honored coming out as LGBTQ+ every year since 1988. The organization advocates for all sexual orientations and gender identities by participating in and leading LGBTQ+-focused events, including its annual pageant.
The competition was restructured in 2020 to be more inclusive, seeking drag kings and nonbinary entertainers in addition to drag queens. It has crowned a Miss and Mr. COSP as well as a COSP Ambassador ever since.
“We are excited to invite you to participate in the 2023 Royal Court Competition of Come OUT St Pete,” COSP’s website reads. “This is your chance to become one of our performing representatives and serve a one-year term promoting diversity and inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community in Tampa Bay.
“As a member of the Royal Court, you’ll have the opportunity to be an outstanding ambassador for our community, making a positive impact and helping us make Come OUT St Pete even better,” it continues. “We truly appreciate your dedication to our mission and are delighted to have you on our team!”
Interested parties are required to register by Sept. 23. Miss COSP is open to cisgender females, drag queens and trans feminine performers; Mr. is open to cisgender males, drag kings and trans masculine performers and Ambassador is open to performers who are nonbinary/gender neutral. Registration is $100 in advance or $125 at the event.
Contestants will be evaluated in four categories. They are Creative Presentation: Your Coming Out Story, Formal Presentation, Question & Answer and Talent. For bonus points, they can also raise funds for COSP, which can also result in receiving an award for being the highest fundraiser.
“This is our second live pageant since COVID-19,” COSP Chair Pat Fearns says. “By returning to a pageant concept, we are confident that we will draw from the significantly vast pool of talent in the greater Tampa Bay area.
“We are also holding this in a new venue for COSP this year, the historic VFW Post 39,” she continues. “This allows us to continue to honor our historic roots in the Grand Central District while also supporting an organization and venue that is important to all Americans and our military!”
The competition will be hosted by Daphne Ferraro and has a door charge of $10, which supports COSP’s mission. Winners of each title will receive $250, a sash and either a crown or medallion. They will also represent COSP during and beyond this year’s event, scheduled for Oct. 14 at Seminole Park. That’s when COSP will hold a Family Day Celebration and Chili Cook Off featuring local vendors, entertainment and more.
“Our community is under attack from the far right … we must continue to speak up, stand up and say this is not acceptable,” Fearns says. “We will not go back into the closet! We will mobilize and we will vote and we will elect officials who represent and respect us and our values.”
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For more information about this year’s pageant and COSP 2023, visit ComeOutStPete.org/COAYA.
