Dishing with Mark n Carrie 7-26-19

 

Flamingo Resort St. Pete Closing

This weekend will be the last for the Flamingo Resort in St. Petersburg. We know what a difficult time this will be for the staff. It’s always sad when a business closes, especially a LGBT business. Most straight people will not understand how hard this will affect the LGBT employees. We have also gone thru similar situations, including the closing of the Suncoast Resort.  When a LGBT person finds employment in a LGBT Friendly business, it’s great. When we find work in an openly LGBT owned & operated business its not only fantastic but becomes our world and family. The dedication these employees give to the owners and business is truly amazing!!! This is why it is so very hurtful and devasting to learn of the termination, of not only your job but relationship with the company, by closing thru a Facebook post.

In the case of the closing of the Suncoast Resort we all learn thru a letter giving us 2 weeks to get out. Then they actually turned off everyone’s air-conditioning in June. Told the employees to work hard thru the last day because they were opening again soon. Never Happened!! Today almost no one remembers the SunCoast Resort.

So, to the Flamingo employees we would like to say that the pain you’re feeling is real. It’s hurtful in more than one way. Don’t listen to all the negative people. The community will stand by you. You did nothing wrong. It will get better everyday that passes.  BIG (((HUGS))) from Mark & Carrie

The Giunta Farm Ybor City

Vicky and Tessie Giunta announced at the Historic East Ybor & Gary Neighborhood Association meeting, the they are now going for a City of Tampa Local Historic Landmark. Their family farm in Ybor City was started by their Grandparents over 120+ years ago. Check out the video below and also this web site https://www.americanbungalow.com/giunta-family-homestead/

 

If you agree with us that this Ybor History should be receive a Landmark write to Historical Preservation Commission c/o Dennis Fernandez at dennis.fernandez@tampagov.net

https://youtu.be/pR0WmFtysDU

 

https://www.americanbungalow.com/giunta-family-homestead/

 

Symbols of Hate

How many of these hate symbols do you know? Please visit the ADL web site today.

https://www.adl.org/hatesymbolsdatabase

 

 

 

TAMPA PRIDE 2020 DIRECTOR’S PLANNING MEETING Set for Aug.6th

The next TP Planning Meeting is Aug 6th at Hampton Inn Ybor at 6pm.in Hampton Conference room.

New additional fun events are being planned for the upcoming Pride year.

Everyone is invited to participate, get involved and help make TAAMPA PRIDE 2020 a huge success.

tampapride.org.

 

Suncoast Softball forming Teams

The Suncoast Softball League will hold its 2nd new player practice for the Fall 2019 season on Sunday August 11th at Henry & Ola Park in Tampa. New players of all levels are invited to attend and will go through a few basic fielding, running and hitting drills to be assigned a division of play. We offer 4 levels of play in Tampa Bay’s largest LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 🥎 sports league. Then join us at 2PM for Extra Innings at sponsor City Side Lounge for Extra Innings! Free food, great drink specials. It’s also Tampa Bay LGBTQ+ Sports Day AND SSL Hall of Fame Day! 3703 Henderson Blvd, Tampa, FL 33609

https://www.facebook.com/events/372042823486514/

 

 

Tampa Bay Pride Band  – Year 6 Band Kick Off Orientation

https://www.tampabayprideband.com/events/new-year-kick-off/

Greetings Tampa Bay Musicians,

I would like to welcome all of you to our year 6 of the Tampa Bay Pride Band and Symphonic Winds concert and performance series of 2019-2020.  We are thrilled to announce the new rehearsal space and performance location.  We have moved to the Hillsborough Community College of Performing Arts Campus in Ybor City.  This is an appropriate venue for a musically excelling and growing community symphonic band.  The new rehearsal and concert venue has great equipment for percussion, a large band room, several practice rooms, and a concert hall all in one location.

To celebrate this move, we will host our Kick Off Band Orientation at our new home HCC Ybor. We hope that this will inspire our current, past, and future members to register for the 2019-2020 season on our website https://www.tampabayprideband.com/registration/ as well as attend our Band Kick Off Orientation Event which is Monday July 29that 7pm at HCC in Ybor.  Please invite your musician friends and share through your social media!

First Rehearsal: Monday August 12, 2019 7pm-9pm

Rehearsal Location: Hillsborough Community College Performing Arts Campus in Ybor City

Address: 2112 N 15th St. Tampa, FL 33605

Rehearsal Time: 7pm-9pm

Sincerely,

David Triplett-Rosa M.M.E.

Artistic Director

Tampa Bay Pride Band and Tampa Bay Symphonic Winds

 

Groundbreaking & Restoration Ceremony

https://www.facebook.com/events/400381423930640/

 

Join Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, METRO, CAN Community Health and others for a restoration and expansion ceremony, pre-construction preview, light refreshments and details about the bright future of one of Tampa’s oldest landmark buildings.

Built in 1909 and named for the successful German businessmen who funded it, the German American Building was created as community gathering place for all, regardless of heritage. Shuttered in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment at the onset of WWI, the building has struggled to realize its true purpose of inclusivity ever since… Until now.

Fast forward to 2020 where future tenants, Tampa-bay-based Metro Inclusive Health and CAN Community Health, will offer various healthcare services with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community, but where “all are welcome, including you,” as the slogan implies.

Plans call for restoring the gathering space to its original purpose and grandeur for community events and dozens of programs offered by METRO at little to no cost to the LGBTQ+ and ally community. Another 15,000 square foot three-storey state-of-the-art health center will be added adjacently, creating nearly 30,000 square feet in total.

In 2018, METRO impacted the lives of over 27,000 individuals. Currently leasing 12,000 square feet in Ybor City, the newly completed facility will make it possible to meet surging demand for services. Among them in particular, HIV testing, treatment and prevention as Hillsborough county was identified by the CDC as one of the Nation’s “most burdened counties,” with regards to rising HIV diagnoses.

 

Metro Inclusive Health

We need YOUR help to make sure that the voices of people living with HIV are included! Anyone who is living with HIV/AIDS is eligible to participate in the 2019 HIV Care Needs Survey. Responses are used to determine what services are most important to you so that those services can be funded appropriately. To access the survey online, please visit bit.ly/2xVeEjF

 

Tru-T

TruT is now filming live every Sunday at Stone Soup Company in Ybor City.  Watch the filming on the second floor.

2019 FLORIDA LGBTA Democratic Summer Conference

Last weekend the Fl LGBTA Democratic Caucus Summer Conference took place with many state organizations and county district groups present. President Fl LGBTA is Stephen Gaskill and local Hillsborough Cty chapter president David Cutler did a great job in programming the 3 day event at Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay.

The message that was being heavily pronounced to the group was voter registration – voter turnout! There are 7 LGBTA regional chapters in Florida from all over the state.

Informative as it was stats claiming that the LGBTA community in America spent $380 billion dollars to the US Economy.

Organizational speakers included Sean Meloy – Political Director of Victory Fund, Hills Cty Comm Les Miller & Comm Pat Kemp,  Fl Congresswoman Kathy Castor & Congressman Charlie Crist, Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, with Special Guest Stonewall Veteran John ‘Jay’ Chetney and Keynote Dinner Speaker was Florida Commissioner of Agriculture  and Consumer Services Nikki Fried.

One minor hiccup of the state advocacy group was the underlining presence of the Rainbow flag being set up on stage upside down.

You Just Can Not Make This Up

There was a wonderful free spirit person we called Miss Samantha Perkins. Dressed in female clothing but never with makeup or female hair. Samantha loved to make people smile and have fun. One day at the SunCoast Resort, one of the owners was having a political person running for St. Pete Mayor, coming to speak. The political rally was right infront of our store there. Samantha came walking up to see what was going on. The owner got mad and said she was not welcome and need to go into our store and stay out of sight until after the rally. Devastated she came into our store and sat with us until after the rally. What a sad day for Samantha and our community.  Today she is retired and living quietly in Tampa.

Photos of the Week 7-14-19

Photos of the Week