{"id":302193,"date":"2026-06-10T04:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302193\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T04:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:30:29","slug":"st-petes-lgbtq-liaison-helps-kick-off-pride-month-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302193\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete&#8217;s LGBTQ+ liaison helps kick off Pride Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Petersburg city officials raised its Pride flag Thursday, displaying the city\u2019s commitment to inclusivity ahead of the state\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flgov.com\/eog\/news\/press\/2026\/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-eliminate-local-dei-programs-and-block\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently signed anti-DEI law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The new law that goes into effect in January 2027 bans cities and counties from funding or promoting diversity, equity and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s new LGBTQ+ liaison, Nathan Bruemmer, was part of the ceremony and says leaders look to continue building a city where everyone feels welcomed and valued.<\/p>\n<p>Bruemmer, who was appointed by Mayor Kenneth Welch in December, says he will focus on connecting with the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really about listening,\u201d said Bruemmer. \u201cWhat are the local stories? Whether they\u2019re accomplishments or their concerns or their needs, what\u2019s really happening here in the city that our city leaders, the mayor\u2019s office, all of the departments need to be aware of?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether he\u2019s addressing a record-breaking crowd, like the one Thursday at City Hall, or sitting on a panel discussing economic opportunities, Bruemmer takes his role seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I think we\u2019re seeing a lot of challenges to, I think, thriving for small businesses. We\u2019ve got a lot of different programs with The Greenhouse and our economic development team, but we\u2019ve got to make sure everyone knows about that,\u201d said Bruemmer.<\/p>\n<p>Facing adversity, the attorney and educator is now an advocate. He also has a history of leadership in major LGBTQ+ organizations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a member of the LGBTQ community, I\u2019m from the area, I grew up in the Tampa Bay area and there were challenges for me as a student, as an employee in different positions I had and there were many that came before me,\u201d said Bruemmer. \u201cThe opportunities that I have today are because folks did the work before me, and I want young people moving forward to also have those opportunities so this is the cycle, this is what we give back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Petersburg city officials raised its Pride flag Thursday, displaying the city\u2019s commitment to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1187,115,596,4253,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-302193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pride-month","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302193","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=302193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}