{"id":331583,"date":"2026-07-07T09:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331583\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T09:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:42:08","slug":"st-pete-pride-leaders-say-future-events-may-look-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331583\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Pride leaders say future events may look different"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Pete Pride\u2019s vice president said the community stepped up since the group put out the call last week for individual donations, but the nonprofit still has work to do to fill its budget gap after Pride Weekend<\/a> fundraising fell thousands of dollars short of its goal.<\/p>\n

Vice President Trent Brock said about $40,000 has come in since last Monday, but that\u2019s not enough to make up the deficit. Brock said going forward, community support is going to be more important than ever, and Pride events may end up looking a little different.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019re starting to plan for next year, we\u2019re going to think about what events can we possibly do smaller, and then what events can we possibly do without,\u201d said Brock.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re possibilities St. Pete Pride leaders have previously spoken about and now say are part of the reality they\u2019re facing. After losing $200,000 in sponsorships ahead of this year\u2019s Pride celebrations, the group announced last week it\u2019s canceling this month\u2019s Shades of Pride event. It comes after Brock said the nonprofit raised just $16,000 of its $100,000-$150,000 fundraising goal during Pride Weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a decision we made lightly,\u201d reads a post on the organization\u2019s Facebook page about the cancellation. \u201cOver the past year, St. Pete Pride has been transparent about the financial challenges our organization is facing. Like most LGBTQ+ organizations, sponsorships have declined, and the cost of producing community events has continued to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our money comes from sponsorships and individual donations,\u201d Brock said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re at kind of a crossroad right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock and other leaders have pointed to state legislation on diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of the reason for the sponsorship drop.<\/p>\n

One law he said he thinks has had an impact hasn\u2019t actually gone into effect yet – Senate Bill 1134<\/a>. It bans cities and counties from funding or promoting DEI programs. The law also prohibits recipients of county or municipal grants from using the funds for DEI purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen a lot of government organizations, even some politicians, and then other just general businesses that are kind of uneasy right now. It\u2019s kind of like we\u2019re in a gray area,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t sure exactly how to interpret that bill or how it will impact their particular organizations. So, we\u2019ve seen those organizations kind of preemptively pull back their sponsorship dollars, or at least reduce those amounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Rep. Berny Jacques supported the State House version of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things DEI does is promote divisive programming, not only within the context of employment or policy within city hall, but things that are being spent on, as well,\u201d said Jacques.<\/p>\n

According to the governor\u2019s office, Florida DOGE found<\/a> that the city of St. Petersburg paid $258,000 to support Pride events. Jacques said he consistently hears from constituents who they need relief from costs like property taxes – and part of the reason he supported the bill was to protect taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill doesn\u2019t prevent them from getting private funding. The bill simply reins in governmental money, which means taxpayer money,\u201d said Jacques.<\/p>\n

Brock said St. Pete Pride will continue to turn to the public as they start to plan next year\u2019s 25th anniversary celebrations. He said the best way to donate is on their website<\/a>, and no amount is too small. Senate Bill 1134 goes into effect January 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Pete Pride\u2019s vice president said the community stepped up since the group put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,558,28,2287,115,596,4253,2718,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-331583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pride-month","tag-sarah-blazonis","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-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331583","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=331583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}