Tampa does not have anyone closer to LGBT royalty than Carrie West and Mark “Tea Cup” Bias. Any given day you can catch up with them in Ybor City, mingling with their subjects and bestowing there grand wisdom to the new generation.
“Everything we do we try and do in a positive direction,” West says.
The best way to describe 2015 for Mark and Carrie is as a rollercoaster. After 26 years at the corner of 8th and 15th MC Film Festival permanently closed its doors. The shop opened in the pre-internet days and was one of the only places in town, and for some in the country, where you could get LGBT cinema.
“We collected videos and films that were LGBT themed and got them out to people,” West says. “We advertised in the Advocate, too, and were sending gay films all over the country. It was the only way some people were able to get them.”
MC Film Fest wasn’t only a video store but a place to come and talk with others in the community. It became a piece of the LGBT culture in Tampa.
The grand sendoff came just as Mark and Carrie kicked off the resurgence of Tampa Pride this year to record crowds.
“When we started, they asked us if we thought it was going to be a big crowd,” West says.“We said 12,000 to 15,000 people, but in our minds we were thinking maybe even 20,000. We had 40,000.”
The inaugural Tampa Pride was the first Pride Parade in Tampa since 2002. While there have been other smaller Pride festivals over the years, this was the first time that a large, public LGBT Pride celebration was held in more than a decade.
“We were blown away,” West says. “But next year is going to be bigger with lots more people. We are the first of the big city Prides in the nation so we have to do it big, for all the community and for all of Tampa Bay.”
