{"id":232713,"date":"2026-04-15T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232713\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:36:08","slug":"tallahassees-pridefest-the-famuan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/232713\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee\u2019s Pridefest \u2013 The FAMUAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hundreds gather for Pridefest 2026.\u00a0 (Justin Jordan\/FAMUAN)<\/p>\n

The Adderly Amphitheatre roared with music, local organizations spoke to\u00a0passerby,\u00a0and\u00a0local businesses showed their wares as\u00a0hundreds of community members gathered at Cascades Park\u00a0to celebrate Tallahassee\u2019s Pridefest 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pridefest is hosted by Tallahassee Pride, a nonprofit organization\u00a0whose\u00a0mission is to \u201cfacilitate celebrations of queer joy and experiences and to promote the visibility and representation of the LGBTQIA+ community through an active community presence and events designed to entertain, educate, and empower.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme for Pridefest was \u201cunited we stand, better together,\u201d\u00a0a reference to unity during times that many in the LBGTQ+ community consider perilous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year,\u201d the Human Rights Campaign said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senate\u00a0Bill\u00a0244,\u00a0which\u00a0passed in Kansas,\u00a0made it illegal for transgender people to use public bathrooms that\u00a0differ from their sex at birth and invalidated the drivers\u2019 licenses of transgender Kansans who updated their license\u2019s gender markers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Locally in Tallahassee, Capital Tea, a\u00a0nonprofit offers\u00a0free HIV testing, support groups\u00a0and even a safe house for Transgender people who often face discrimination and even violence due to their gender identity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Markayla, a woman who\u00a0received services from Capital Tea,\u00a0spoke about the support and community she felt due to the festivities.\u00a0We are not using Markayla\u2019s last name because\u00a0of the discrimination\u00a0that Transgender\u00a0people often face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeing\u00a0a lot\u00a0of support from all different walks of\u00a0life,\u201d\u00a0Markayla said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As many LGBTQ+ advocates have noted,\u00a0an environment that is\u00a0increasingly hostile to their existence as queer people, many queer people are searching for places of acceptance and belonging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sylvia Smith, who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community,\u00a0found her\u00a0place of acceptance in Saint Stephens Lutheran Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to have churches remind us that we are all loved and that we are being sought by a power bigger than ourselves and that there\u2019s also community,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith explained that her spiritual journey had not always been one of acceptance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have\u00a0like\u00a0a lot\u00a0of people from the LBGTQ+ community\u00a0had experiences that were painful, harmful, and I had experienced rejection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But unlike past experiences, Smith said that Saint Stephen Lutheran Church offered her acceptance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beyond just an open congregation, beyond a welcoming congregation,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a congregation\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0been led by people from the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d\u00a0Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alongside community advocacy groups and churches, local politicians and candidates for local elections were also present at Pride\u00a0including Mayoral Candidate Jeremy Matlow, County Commissioner David O\u2019 Keefe and candidates for City Commission seat\u00a03\u00a0PJ Perez and Max Herle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re out here collecting\u00a0petitions, and\u00a0it\u2019s important to be out here because it\u2019s a beautiful day in Tallahassee with a community that loves everyone and every part of our community,\u201d\u00a0Max Herle said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather for Pridefest 2026.\u00a0 (Justin Jordan\/FAMUAN) The Adderly Amphitheatre roared with music, local organizations spoke to\u00a0passerby,\u00a0and\u00a0local businesses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-232713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}