A coalition of local grassroots organizations will be joining the St Petersburg Pride Parade this Saturday. The People’s Pride Coalition (PPC), established in 2023, is an organization that strives for social and political justice. They are working towards inspiring change within the community.
Last year, they joined the St Pete Pride Parade to try and restore pride to its roots in pure celebration. This year they want to celebrate pride without featuring big companies that they say are harming the community.
“We’re seeing the cooptation, we’re seeing it become a parade of companies that are actually harming our communities,” said Gabby Aguilera, a member of the PPC through Ocala for Justice in Palestine. “We want to make sure that pride is a space that’s true to its history and true to protecting and keeping our community safe and actually celebrating them.”
People’s Pride Night
With the hopes of leading by example, the PPC is hosting its own Pride event. People’s Pride Night will be Friday from 6 to 10 in the evening at Allendale United Methodist Church at 3803 Haines Road North in St. Pete. The PPC hopes this event will create a safe space for everyone to come and kick off Pride celebrations.
“One of the ways that we would like to kind of move forward in strategizing with St Pete Pride and then also as an organization ourselves is that we are putting on our own, pride celebration,” said a member of the PPC who goes by V. “We want to kind of lead by example and show what it’s like to have a pride that has all of our demands met where there are no corporations.”
The St Petersburg Pride parade takes place this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. You can learn more about the Pride parade and People’s Pride Night on Instagram @peoplespridecoalition.
Note: this version of the story reflects the updated location
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