TAMPA PRIDE ZOO LA 2

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Thank You to the Tampa Bay community and beyond for again making Tampa Pride’s Kick Off Benefit PRIDE ZOO LA at Zoo Tampa a great success. It has taken hundreds of volunteers and hours preparing for this fun night.

The entrance of Zoo Tampa had stilt walkers and Brazilian dancers entertaining the ticket holders.

The walk to the Safari Pavillion let you experience the sights and sounds of monkeys, exotic birds and many of the wild animals making noises and calming down as the colorful sunset sky fell dark.

The Tampa Bay Pride Band played a variety of animal themed songs and zoo movie overtures. Anteaters, porcupines, ravens, and animals were displayed and wandered in the crowd near the zoo handlers.

Silent auction items this year included 3-night resort stays, Southwest Airlines & Silver Airways Airline tix up for bid, art work, spas, Rays, Buccaneer, Rowdies, Magic, Lightning sports tickets and memorabilia, Art & sculptures and local Tampa Bay merchants’ gifts.

Feeding the giraffes was a highlight at the parties start. Such long tongues they have! We were happy that all the Tampa City Council members attended along with other local political leaders. Rep. Adam Hattersly candidate for Congress, Kevin Beckner running for Tampa Clerk of Courts and both Tampa Pride 2019 Grand Marshals and the newly announced 2020 Grand Marshals were all in attendance.

The line up by the Tampa Pride Entertainment committee had a full night of excitement for the guests. DJ Greg Anderson introduced the Adriana Sparkle, who was the nights emcee. The colorfully glitter bearded performer/ MC was ‘Sparkticle’. Singing live was area singing wonder, De Delovely! She brought the crowd to its feet! She is really a singing star! Pose performers vogued the centered red carpet, Lady Janet uppt the energy with here gymnastic drag performance and Ms Amy DeMilo danced with charm, grace and beauty.

Tampa Pride gives out the annual prestigious “Tampa Bay Community Leader Appreciation Award” and this year’s recipient was given to Catherine Lowry Straz for her Tampa Bay involvement in local theater, Opera, Ballet, Bank Director, community activists, community organizer and Chief Executive of the Lowry Park Zoo and the top notch nationally rated, Catherine Straz Veterinary Hospital, one of just a few fully staffed animal hospitals in zoos across the country, at Lowry Park.

More upcoming TAMPA PRIDE events include; POSE Battle of the Houses, Mr/Ms Tampa Pride 2020, Tampa Pride & Paws, Grand Marshal GALA, VIP Sponsors Party, InterFaith Service, and more announced events.

PLAN:  Tampa Pride 2020 – March 28-29

Photos below by Dishing with Mark n Carrie

InterPride 2019 AGM & World Conference Athens, Greece Oct 17-20 2019

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InterPride 2019

AGM & World Conference

Athens, Greece Oct 17-20 2019

https://www.interpride.org/

 

InterPride is the United Nations to the LGBT+ Prides & Communities around the world. Mark & Carrie were honored to represent Tampa. At this year’s conference there were 664 people from 142 different countries.  Over the 4-day conference there were 40+ special workshops, 3 AGM meetings and many group breakdowns. It is interesting how so many different pride organizations have similar goals and situations to work thru. The conference was in English, French, Portages and Spanish.

The AGM (Annual General Meeting) & World Conference is held every year. Next year the AGM will be in Oslo Norway. At this year meeting Winnipeg, Canada & Guadalajara, Mexico competed to host AGM in 2021. The Winner was Guadalajara!  InterPride also co-hosts a World Pride ever 2 years. This year World Pride was in New York City. 2021 World Pride will be in Copenhagen, Denmark. Competing for World Pride 2023 was Montreal, Canada – Sidney, Australia & Houston, Texas.  All three gave exciting & interesting presentations. The winner was Sidney!

There were so many interesting things to learn. Even more interesting, new people to meet and many new friendships were started. At the start of the conference AGM there was a call to change the co-presidents. Currently there are 2; a female identifying & a male identifying person. The group wanted to add a Non-Binary co-president.  We thought the group handled the situation perfectly. After some bylaws were changed there was a 3rd co-President Non-Binary person added to the board.

Opening night there was a reception at The Residence of Netherlands Ambassador. Closing night was a dinner and Gala at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. (more below)

Our hosts in Athens Pride, Andrea Gilbert & Giannis Papagiannopoulos did an amazing job.  Incredibly well organized with every detail thought out. The volunteers made everyone feel welcomed. Athen Pride is 15 years old with 100,000 participants.  Following the AGM we took a 5 day cruise island hopping around Greece.

A Person to Keep Your Eyes On.

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Lorin “Lo” Robert is the President of Pride Houston. She serves as Pride Houston’s first woman of color to hold this title. At InterPride Lorin gave the Pride Houston Presentation. This dynamic speaker with a hint of Texas accent had us laughing and cheering for USA.   Lorian’s positive and reinforcing attitude will get her far. We are sure that you will be hearing the name LORIN “LO” ROBERT.

Below are photos from Pride Houston.  A special HELLO to Thasia Madison

He/Him/His

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Over the last few years in in organizations and companies, especial in the LGBT+ Community, when introducing after your name people are stating their pronouns.  He/Him/His & She/Her/Hers & They/Them/Their. This is taking us some time to get used to. But if it makes a person feel more comfortable & welcomed then we are OK with this. At InterPride everything is very inclusive. I do feel that they take it a little bit to far. In the host hotel & all events they cover up the men’s & woman’s restroom signs and replace with W/C. So the restroom are all totally unisex. For a guy who is a little pee shy, well maybe a lot in a traditional men’s room, you can just imagine what it is like to hear a woman’s voice behind and next to you at the urinals. Boy do girls love to talk in the bathrooms! LMAO

Opening Night Reception

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The Welcome & Scholarship Reception was at the Residence of the Netherlands Ambassador. Our group of 600+ all meet in the hotel lobby. Our hosts came out and announced it was a short 10 minute walk to the residence. Following them out of the Hilton to the park across the street. Thru the park and out on the other side we noticed that the streets were closed and police going up and down. Hummm… then we all saw there was a protest going on! OMG We walked past some of the protesters and turned to our left. There right in front of us was a wall of riot police lined up with shields out. Wonder what the police thought??? A large group of LGBT+ people dressed up with convention badges? LOL The host went up to the police and started to talk. All of a sudden 2 police moved and lets us pass. Behind the police line were 100’s of police, those small police motor scooters, horses and busses. I guess they were protecting embassy row.  A couple more blocks and there with a rainbow flag flying was the Embassy residence. At the front door to greet us was the Princess of the Royal Family.  Wonder if she ever had that many Queens in her home at one time? LOL She was quite beautiful and gave a warm welcoming speech. What a night to remember.

Closing Dinner & GALA

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What an honor to have the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Athens newly built opera house in the City of Athens to host our World InterPride closing party. Rainbow lights lite up the top floor of the huge center. It was located in and next to some of the Olympic Buildings and stadiums. Alongside was a colorful dancing fountain, like the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The dinner & show made for a perfect night.