At least two Florida cities will not hold their annual LGBTQ Pride events
Pride organizers in the Florida cities of Tampa and Fort Myers will not hold their annual Pride events this year, citing funding issues.
There will be no Pride Southwest Florida in Fort Myers in November, according to Michael Hange, a board member for Pride-SWFL, the nonprofit that has historically organized the event. Pride Southwest Florida debuted in 2009 and returned last year after a multiyear Covid-19 hiatus, according to organizers.
Adam Larivee, the president of LGBTQ nonprofit Visuality, which has had a longstanding relationship with Pride Southwest Florida, said the annual event will not happen because of a lack of sponsorship dollars. He said his organization recently agreed to combine with Pride-SWFL and take over the event going forward.
“The unfortunate part was we just didn’t have enough planning time for us to be able to put it on for 2025 so with that, we are shooting for 2026,” Larivee said.
Hange said that this “combining forces under Visuality not only streamlines resources but also makes greater financial sense, allowing us to better serve the community.”
“We are excited to continue SWFL Pride and make it better than ever under Visuality’s leadership,” he said in a statement.
Larivee said Visuality is considering hosting the celebration at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in June, but that he will have more information regarding the exact date and location once its permit application is processed by the city, which could take two to three months.
“Our goal in this environment is exposure, education and experience,” he said, adding that he believes negative backlash to the LGBTQ community is often rooted in a lack of knowledge. “Our goal is not necessarily to ruffle feathers, but to say, we’re here, that Fort Myers is a safe place for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Fort Myers is at least the second Florida city that has changed its Pride plans.
Tampa Pride — which celebrated its official tenth anniversary in March but traces its roots back to 1982 — announced on Facebook this month that it would take “a one-year hiatus,” meaning no 2026 Tampa Pride Festival and Diversity Parade. The post is in the form of a letter from the Board of Tampa Pride to Tampa Pride President Carrie West and states that the board will not renew West’s employment contract, which ended Aug. 31.
“The current political and economic climate, including challenges with corporate sponsorships, reductions in county, state and federal grant funding, and the discontinuation of DEI programs under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has made it increasingly difficult for our organization to sustain ongoing operations for 2026,” the board wrote, according to Tampa Pride’s post.
West, who did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment, told WFLA, an NBC affiliate in Tampa Bay, that the driving factor behind the hiatus was their largest sponsors significantly reducing their donations or pulling them entirely. The organization needs at least $225,000 to continue to function into 2026, he said.
Some of their bigger donations, West said, went from $5,000 and $10,000 down to $1,000 or $2,000. The organization plans to seek out different sources of funding or hold lower-cost events, WFLA reported. West said there is no guarantee that Tampa Bay Pride will be able to host events in 2027.
The announcements from Tampa Bay Pride and Pride-SWFL are part of an ongoing trend of Pride organizers struggling to find and maintain sponsorships. Several of the nation’s largest LGBTQ Pride celebrations, which are typically held in June, told NBC News earlier this year that they were down hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships, which resulted in some having to reduce the size of their events.
Organizers said some of their past sponsors feared being targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration over participation in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has attempted to restrict through an executive order issued on the first day of his presidency.
