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Tampa Pride returns with LGBT parade and street fest in Ybor City

 
Parade participants march down Seventh Avenue in Ybor City during the Tampa Pride Parade on Saturday. This was Tampa’s first gay pride parade in 13 years, and Tampa police Chief Jane Castor, who is gay, served as grand marshal.
Parade participants march down Seventh Avenue in Ybor City during the Tampa Pride Parade on Saturday. This was Tampa’s first gay pride parade in 13 years, and Tampa police Chief Jane Castor, who is gay, served as grand marshal.
Published March 29, 2015

TAMPA

Ahead of the floats with rainbow tutus and dazzling drag queens, Tampa police Chief Jane Castor tossed magenta beads to hungry hands.

"Chief Castor!" one man shouted, waving.

"That's the chief!" another one pointed out.

As grand marshal of Tampa's first gay pride festival in 13 years, the chief posed for selfies and doled out hugs along the parade route that snaked down E Seventh Avenue in Ybor City on Saturday. Around the corner, booths lined Eighth Avenue.

For the chief, and many attendees, this day was personal. Not only did Castor, who is gay, feel pride that her city was embracing its diversity, but Tampa Pride was the last parade she'll oversee before she retires as chief of police.

"It's nice to see the enthusiasm and people from all walks of life," she said, adding that "nobody does a parade better than Tampa."

From 2005 to 2013, the Hillsborough County Commission had refused to sign proclamations for LGBT events. People along the route Saturday rejoiced that they finally had the opportunity to celebrate on their own street corners.

Equality Florida volunteer and Tampa native Elias Jackson said he thinks the county's resistance might have made the LGBT community in Hillsborough even stronger.

A 20-year-old gender studies major at University of South Florida, Jackson said he started college classes in Fort Myers but came back to Tampa soon after.

"I wanted to do my activism at home. I wanted to make a difference in my own community," he said. "I didn't even know I'd been waiting for this to happen."

Jackson said he spent the day talking with older members of the LGBT community who recalled times when being "here and queer" was not okay. It reminded him to be appreciative of the hard work of those who came before him, he said, and to build upon it.

Just a few booths down, inside the Gayest Store On Earth, Lisa Huston, 53, echoed similar sentiments.

"It's a privilege for us to be out here today," she said. "We're doing a bang-up job."

By late morning, Huston, 53, had already sold all her multicolored bow ties and dog bandanas, but the stream of revelers just kept coming.

Next went the glittering fedoras, boas and T-shirts with sayings like "I can't even think straight."

Her booth, also an online store, was one of the few selling merchandise at Tampa Pride. She started it when she left her job in the corporate world, and this event was her first.

"I decided it was time to do something fun with my life," Huston said. "This has given me an opportunity to provide almost a service to my community."

But despite Florida's recent legalization of same-sex marriage, she said, "we still have a long way to go."

"Look what just happened in Indiana," she said.

The Midwestern state was a topic of conversation among people at the parade Saturday. This week Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a "religious freedom" law that critics, including tech executives and convention organizers, fear could open the door to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

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And yet, festivalgoers said despite the challenges across the country, Floridians still have much to celebrate. Among the features on the parade route this year was a heart-shaped arch decorated with white chiffon and staffed by a notary ready to marry any couple who walked up with a marriage license in hand, a gesture that would not have been legal just a few months ago.

At the end of the parade's route, two women — one a transplant from Ohio and the other from Istanbul, Turkey — sat outside a restaurant and watched the parade pass by.

On their table, next to dessert, heaped a pile of beads that only grew with each passing float. They'd come to support a co-worker from Chase Bank, where they both work.

"We're here supporting people's rights to love whoever they want," said Pam Shadi, 52.

She said that as she gets older, she finds herself becoming more and more accepting. Her friend, Nadia Harris, moved to Tampa Bay from Istanbul 12 years ago and said this year's parade reminded her how much progress has been made in the United States when it comes to gay rights, unlike in her home country, where people hide their orientation and can even be killed for it.

"It's nice to see that everybody is so free," she said. "Everybody is themselves."

Information from the Indianapolis Star was used in this report. Contact Katie Mettler at kmettler@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3446. Follow @kemettler.