Love and acceptance outshine fear during Manatee Pride Festival at Bradenton Riverwalk
Love, acceptance and every color of the rainbow were on display at the eighth annual Manatee Pride festival on Saturday, despite what some described as political attempts to dull the celebration.
Many people came to Rossi Park on the Riverwalk in Bradenton draped in rainbow colors, even a few dressed in drag, for several reasons: to love, to openly live in their truth and to denounce Florida’s political policies that they feel violate the rights of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
The Manatee Pride Festival is a fundraiser for ALSO Youth, a nonprofit that provides advocacy, leadership, support and outreach for LGBTQ+ youth in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
At the festival, there was live music and drag entertainment, vendors, refreshments and health checks.
Three days before Manatee Pride, Florida Republicans filed three bills that would expand last year’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which opponents have called the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Volunteers from Equality Florida were at Manatee Pride gathering signatures for a petition against the law.
A safe space in a time of fear
Although Saturday’s events served as a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to celebrate, some of their thoughts were on the current political climate and attempts statewide and locally to instill fear in the community.
Tyler Butler, the host of the Out and About Sarasota video show, hosted part of Manatee Pride.
He told the Bradenton Herald on Saturday, while in between keeping the crowd entertained on the mic, that he actually feared hosting the event.
“I was in fear after hearing some of the obstacles in Manatee County with a group called Manatee Moms who were protesting and going to the city here trying to stop the drag entertainment,” Butler said.
“Don’t say gay is such a topic of discussion, and now we have an issue with drag entertainment,” he said. “I’m a little confused about going the extra mile with drag because I think in the back of my mind, ‘What’s next? If the governor becomes president and he’s already making all these changes, what’s next for our gay community?’”
Butler said he fears that if DeSantis makes a move for the presidency, pride events and other events within marginalized communities across the nation could be canceled.
“It’s terrifying. We had to hire an extra police force to come out today to protect the community,” he said. “I’ve never cared too much about political stuff, but when you have these kinds of things happen it’s scary, so you have to speak out and vote.”
Manatee Pride’s second host, Momma Ashley Rose, of Rose Dynasty, a Central Florida nonprofit that mentors LGBTQ+ youth and hosts charity-based drag queen pageants, said their goal in life is to spread kindness and love.
Rose, accompanied by a group of drag entertainers, read the LGBTQ+ children’s book “The Boy with the Rainbow Heart” to the crowd on Saturday.
The book is about a boy with a rainbow heart who turns the town of Gray into the town of Shine through sharing love and kindness.
“There’s too much hate and discrimination going on amongst LGBTQ+ people, people of color and women. I feel my purpose is to spread the message of acceptance and kindness. Even reading a simple book in a city can make a difference and turn fear, anger and sadness into joy and love.”
Aaliyah Thomas, 20, of Bradenton, attended Manatee Pride as an ally.
Thomas has family members who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and she said she doesn’t like that people feel uncomfortable with them and doesn’t think it should matter at all.
“I think it should be looked at as normal like any other sexuality,” Thomas said. “It’s never been an issue in our family or with me. They get treated normally, the same and love is equal.”
Thomas, who has a one-year-old daughter, said she never thought about her child not being educated about sexuality in school and believes it should not be barred from discussion.
“She’s going to come into contact with it or see it in her life someday, so I don’t see why it’s a problem to learn about it in school,” said Thomas.
Stepping up for LGBTQ+ youth
All of what ALSO Youth has done in its 30 years of existence has been focused on children, and, recently, they’ve started another program called ALSO Jr.
The nonprofit provides programs and services to LGBTQ+ youth ages 10 to 24.
There are support groups, counseling groups and reading clubs, which are held at their two drop-in centers in Sarasota and Bradenton.
The organization also provides scholarships and annually hosts an LGBTQ+ prom for students who don’t feel comfortable going to their own school’s prom to take the person they want or dress how they want.
Mary Tavarozzi, board president for ALSO Youth, said their most-used service is individual counseling, which is 100% free.
ALSO stands for advocacy, leadership, support and outreach. Tavarozzi said the organization’s advocacy is needed during this time, which she believes is a ”very tough political climate.”
“We are trying to make sure that the youth don’t absorb the hateful rhetoric that they are hearing out there and turn it on themselves,” Tavarozzi said. “We’re trying to combat suicide attempts, self-harm and substance abuse.”
Tavarozzi said the way the organization accomplishes that is by making sure those youth know there is somebody there for them who steps up.
“How we step up is by holding public events like this, like Pride.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 12:26 PM.
