GULFPORT, Fla. | Gulfport Pride responded to community concerns June 3 after a vendor wearing and selling pro-Donald Trump merchandise participated in this month’s fourth annual event.
Your Hot Sauce Company featured a selection of politically themed hot sauces at its booth, in addition to a Trump 2024 hat supporting the former president’s re-election campaign. The local company’s website currently offers a “Donald J. Trump Hot Sauce” with “no P.C. added,” condiments named after other anti-LGBTQ+ figures like Gov. Ron DeSantis and another that disparages former President Barack Obama.
The merchandise was displayed under a banner reading “Official Festival Merchandise” along with “brought to you by” the company’s logo, “Make America Hot Again” and the logo of Gulfport Pride organizer SIK Promotions.
Tiffany Razzano, who runs the literary organization Wordier Than Thou and This Bookstore Kills Fascists and is also a Watermark freelancer, was a nearby vendor at the festival. She says several attendees were concerned about the company’s merchandise and SIK’s apparent support of its political messaging.
She says she addressed the matter with Suzanne King, owner of SIK and a Gulfport Pride board member, who advised the banner wasn’t political. Razzano disagreed and shared her thoughts on social media, seen below.
“The logo of a Pride organizer should not be on a booth endorsing Trump,” she adds. “That didn’t make any sense to me; there was a MAGA candidate for a party that hates the people you’re celebrating at Pride and it has your logo on it … that sign shouldn’t have been there.”
A response from Gulfport Pride came June 3.
“We strive to make Gulfport Pride inclusive and a safe and friendly space for all participants,” the organization shared. “The LGBTQ+ community itself includes Log Cabin Republicans, for example, and we personally have several Lesbian and Gay friends who are Trump supporters.
“We cannot — and will not — try to censor vendors or attendees from wearing a shirt we don’t agree with, and cannot get involved with such issues unless that person gets unruly,” they continued. “We did not give any vendor the designation of ‘Official Festival Merchandise’ for the Gulfport Pride Festival. The vendor in question had a banner up from other, unrelated events. By the time it was brought to our attention, the festival was almost over, so there wasn’t much point in asking them to take it down.”
Gulfport Pride added that moving forward, the organization “will be reviewing other LGBTQIA+ events on our vendor selection criteria and putting any changes deemed needed.” Read their full statement below:
Gulfport Pride President Paul Ray declined to offer any additional comment for this story. King, however, told Watermark that “The banner mentioned has no political affiliation on it whatsoever.”
“These (vendor in question) people are kind and generous HUMAN BEINGS … We host many INCLUSIVE events, not just Gulfport Pride and we work with all types of individuals and walks of life in this business,” she added. “We don’t judge any of them based on their political beliefs, sexual preference, what they sell or what they wear.”
Pressed further, King noted “We will not be seeing that banner at any future events.” Watermark has reached out to Your Hot Sauce Company and will update this story should a response be received.
According to SIK’s website, the fifth annual Gulfport Pride is scheduled for June 7, 2025. Applications for vendors are currently available and the organizer notes “Our target audience is LGBTQ friendly. Please consider the theme and audience before submitting your application.”
For more information about Gulfport Pride, visit GulfportPrideFlorida.com.
