{"id":419393,"date":"2026-10-05T17:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419393\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T17:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:32:37","slug":"st-pete-pride-faces-289000-shortfall-ahead-of-25th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419393\/","title":{"rendered":"St Pete Pride Faces $289,000 Shortfall Ahead of 25th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1401\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_9754-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-267834 size-267834 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Spectators fill the streets of St. Petersburg for the St. Pete Pride Street Festival.\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpectators fill the streets of St. Petersburg for the St. Pete Pride Street Festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpetepride.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St Pete Pride<\/a> says it needs to raise at least\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/19qNxLCJvj\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$289,000 by November 30th<\/a> to pay remaining expenses from its 2026 Pride celebration and move forward with its 25th anniversary in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Board President\u00a0Trent Brock\u00a0announced the fundraising goal in a message to the Tampa Bay community, citing reduced sponsorships, rising event costs and unpaid expenses carried over from previous Pride celebrations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve already begun planning for next year,\u201d Brock wrote. \u201cBut we can\u2019t responsibly continue that work until this year\u2019s Pride is paid for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brock said St Pete Pride entered 2026 still paying expenses from 2025 and that this pattern has continued for several years. Moving forward, he said the organization wants to fully close out each Pride season before starting the next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The organization says approximately\u00a0300,000 people attended Pride Weekend in June. Brock noted that if 12,000 people donated at least $25, the organization would reach its goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fundraising push also comes ahead of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/1134\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB 1134, a new Florida law taking effect January 1st, 2027<\/a>, that places restrictions on how local governments can fund and promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brock warned that the organization\u2019s future could be at risk without additional support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithout these critical funds, St Pete Pride as we know it could be at risk in 2027,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St Pete Pride is currently accepting donations as it works toward the\u00a0November 30th deadline. Interested individuals can <a href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/st-pete-pride\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">donate here.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"267835\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/833852890_1674649997561116_3518709132449607460_n-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267835\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"267836\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/833753231_1674650054227777_8690117657304322762_n-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267836\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"267837\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/834131114_1674650184227764_7020901950485300021_n-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267837\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"267838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/834835103_1674650074227775_4854643099534131385_n-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267838\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"267839\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/834500590_1674650000894449_2528435675830957654_n-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267839\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spectators fill the streets of St. Petersburg for the St. Pete Pride Street Festival. St Pete Pride says&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3699,202,204,203,3939,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-419393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-lgbtqia","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-pride","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419393","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=419393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}