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St. Petersburg is prepping for its annual Pride parade during a time some may call hostile to the LGBTQ community. The city’s police department addressed safety concerns at a press conference Tuesday.
St. Pete’s Pride Parade is one of the biggest Pride events in Florida, with thousands coming out last year to celebrate.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway wants to make it as safe as possible.
“You will see marked police cars, hopefully, you won’t see the detectives in plain uniform, we’ll have camera surveillance, we’ll have every type of surveillance possible because we want this to be a safe event.”
Recent anti-gay sentiment in Florida has caused concern in the community, which led one Pride event in Tampa to be cancelled. Markus Hughes is the LGBTQ liaison for St. Pete PD.
“I think there is some concern in the community about is it safe to come out, what’s changing with pride, is it gonna be the same pride that we’ve had years previously? And, yeah, I said, it’s one of those-the message is, you can come out , you can be yourself, you can dress how you want, you can express yourself, just make sure that we fall in the right legislation”.
The parade is Saturday, June 24th and takes place along Bayshore Drive in St. Petersburg.
