COVID-19 forces 5 South Florida LGBTQ pride festivals to create a ‘Virtual Pride’ event
In 2019, hundreds of thousands of celebrants packed five LGBTQ pride celebrations from Lake Worth Beach to Calle Ocho.
This year, though, the coronavirus struck just before South Florida’s pride season got underway — forcing cancellation or postponement of four major festivals, including the region’s two biggest in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
In a moment of camaraderie that has surprised the organizers themselves of the five nonprofit pride festivals, they have formed a collective that will present an online “Virtual Pride” festival Saturday and Sunday. Featured local and international performers — all donating their time — include drag stars Tiffany Fantasia, Kitty Meow, Latrice Royale, Marytrini and Miss Coco Peru; singers Albita, Cascada, EnVee and Nicole Henry; and DJs Tracy Young, Hex Hector and Sushiman.
All money collected through voluntary online contributions will be used to help South Floridians impacted by the killer virus.
“One hundred percent of all money raised will go to community relief efforts directly related to COVID-19,” said Rich Walczak, the recently appointed executive director of Miami Beach Pride, which last year during the first week of April brought together an estimated 170,000 attendees.
“Each organization that’s involved, all five, will equally split the money raised and each organization has chosen a community relief effort,” Walczak said. “We’re hoping to help those who have lost their jobs, who are unemployed and cannot collect unemployment.”
All donations are being collected and will be disbursed by Broward-based Our Fund, the nation’s third-largest LGBT community foundation after San Francisco and Seattle.
“I’m really proud that they have stepped up collectively in this manner. We participate in multiple prides but there’s no way of getting around that these are competing entities,” said David Jobin, Our Fund’s CEO and president. “They are reinforcing for a younger audience the importance of philanthropy. Young people are used to GoFundMes, but they’re not as familiar with these kinds of fundraising efforts that the whole community participates in.”
In addition to Miami Beach Pride, four other major LGBTQ festivals form the South Florida Pride Collective:
▪ Pride Fort Lauderdale, which was attended by an estimated 120,000 people in 2019. This year’s festival was to be an even larger Pride of the Americas from April 21-26 with visitors from 53 nations, according to Pride Fort Lauderdale President Miik Martorell. Pride of the Americas, presented by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, has been delayed until 2021. The group’s Virtual Pride proceeds will be used to assemble boxes of food staples and personal hygiene items for residents who’ve experienced virus-related financial hardships.
▪ Palm Beach Pride, presented by Compass Community Center in Lake Worth Beach, which was scheduled for March 28 and 29. Last year’s event attracted an estimated 30,000 people, said Julia Murphy, Compass’ chief development officer. Their portion of the Virtual Pride goes to the nonprofit Compass, which provides HIV/AIDS testing, youth, senior and mental health services.
▪ Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride, which has moved its annual June event — which last year brought out an estimated 30,000 attendees — to Dec. 6. “This year it will be ‘Celebrate the Holidays with Pride: Don Your Gay Apparel,’” said Jamie Forsythe, the pride committee’s vice president. Most Virtual Pride funds raised will go to We Are Wilton, a GoFundMe for displaced Wilton Manors business workers.
▪Gay8 (Ocho), the popular Little Havana LGBTQ festival that managed to hold its annual President’s Day weekend event in February with an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 attendees packing Calle Ocho — before the worldwide coronavirus began devastating the United States. Virtual Pride funds raised go to Survivor’s Pathway, said Damian Pardo, chairman of 4Ward Miami, which produces the Latino-focused Gay8 festival.
“They have a large client base in Miami and a large client base in Little Havana of transgender women of color who suffer from domestic abuse,” Pardo said. “They have more than 100 trans women of color who live and work in Little Havana.”
Pardo, a leading Miami LGBTQ activist for more than 30 years, said the Virtual Pride is a surprising first — a collegial pride event run by usually competitive pride committees.
“This is the first time we’ve worked together directly. It’s like an exponential work product. We’re able to do things quickly — in a month. Normally it would take a year to pull these things together,” he said. “We’re speaking the same language. It’s great stuff. This will stay with us. We’ll be able to lower costs with vendors and learn from each other.”
Journalist Steve Rothaus covered LGBTQ issues for 22 years at the Miami Herald.
If You Go
What: Virtual Pride presented by the South Florida Pride Collective, https://pridecollectives.com. Sponsored by Our Fund Foundation, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Jack Daniel’s and Comcast.
When: Begins noon Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10
Where: On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/536165407047862
How much: By donation at https://www.our-fund.org/pride_collective
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 6:00 AM.