When Ariana DeBose accepted her Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, the 31-year-old Afro-Latina actress became the first openly queer woman of color to win the prestigious film trophy in a performance category.
“To anyone who has ever questioned your identity — ever, ever, ever — or find yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this: There is indeed a place for us,” DeBose said from the Oscar stage that night while looking directly into the camera.
The last four words in that sentence come from the lyrics of the song “Somewhere,” written by openly gay composer/lyrist Stephen Sondheim, in the musical “West Side Story.” It is the film that DeBose won her Oscar for and the phrase selected by Come Out With Pride as this year’s parade and festival theme.
“We wanted to stand in solidary and stand in unity with our community after all these hateful attacks with the legislation this year,” says COWP Executive Director Tatiana Quiroga. “We wanted to make sure that people felt and knew that when they came to Pride that there is a place for them and that this is their place. In spite of what is going on, they have us, they have each other and this is our place.”
The theme, paired with DeBose’s Oscar win, is double meaningful to Quiroga who, like DeBose, is a queer woman of color.
“Having such incredible representation and having someone who lives in intersections that I live in, it touched home in a real meaningful way,” she says. “Especially as a female having to navigate white, cisgender, male environments. So much of Central Florida leadership is still that, so having her not just get the part but win the award, it really felt like I was seen. And as a marginalized person, I want other folks in our community who live in those intersections to feel the same inclusion, acceptance and welcomeness that I feel from Pride. It really is a form of invitation to my people to come, enjoy and know that this is your place.”
COWP is indeed working to make sure that this year’s Pride celebration is not only a place for all members of the LGBTQ community but also a safe space where everyone can celebrate without fear.
“Unfortunately, due to the current climate,” Quiroga says, “security — which has always been a top priority for us — due to this year’s threats to other Prides around the country, due to hateful legislation, increased activity by hate groups; the board and I have really looked into raising the stakes when it comes to the safety of the festival.”
The Pride festival will be more secure than in year’s past including barricading the space around Lake Eola Park with four access points, one at each corner of the park, to enter the festival. Each entrance will have metal detectors attendees will need to pass through and will be staffed with private security.
“This is a communal effort and we hope people understand that we are trying to keep everyone safe,” Quiroga says. “There will be an increased presence of private security. Our security company has been vetted and has extensive experience working with the LGBTQ community. That was a high priority for us as we were vetting security companies.”
Pride is also asking attendees to leave bags at home or, if you need to bring a bag into the park, to make sure it is a clear bag. They are also asking everyone to alert security if they see anything suspicious.
“We want everyone to come and have fun just as they did in year’s past, at the same time we realize it takes a village, it takes a community, so we are pushing people to say something if you see something,” Quiroga adds. “Please let one of the security guards know, also OPD will have a presence there, and of course in a worst-case scenario call 911.”
An increased security presence will be needed as this is expected to be Orlando’s largest Pride celebration ever. Along with more than 200 organizations and businesses participating in the parade — which will be led by this year’s Grand Marshals: Broadway star and Orlando native Michael James Scott, R.I.S.E. Initiative founder Shea Cutliff, Central Florida student activist Will Larkins and representatives for the late Doug Ba’aser — the festival will also consist of roughly 150 vendors, more than 80 spots on the Sponsor Walk and about 30 spaces providing food and drink, more than any previous year.
Something new to this year’s Pride celebration is COWP’s partnership with the Orlando Immunology Center to sponsor grassroots organizations into the parade and festival who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to do so. Those grassroots organizations are Orlando Queer & Trans Asian Association, Blue Truck Garden Network, Black Health Commission, Divas in Dialogue and Painting Change Orlando.
“We are excited to work with OIC to be able to make Pride accessible to these organizations,” Quiroga says.
Other festival areas Quiroga highlights are the return of the Sober Space, an area inclusive of those living in sobriety, and the Rainbow Ranch kids’ area. A new addition this year will be the Teen Zone, which Quiroga points out was developed in response to this year’s homophobic and transphobic legislation coming out of Tallahassee that had a particular focus on LGBTQ youth.
Another addition to this year’s festival is the Central Florida Trans March, an event born out of last year’s National Trans Visibility March, which was held in conjunction with COWP in Orlando.
“I’m so ecstatic that we are able to continue our partnership with the trans march,” Quiroga says. “I’m so proud of our local trans leaders for keeping the momentum going from last year and creating the Central Florida Trans March. We look forward to seeing how we can continue to support them while at the same time making sure they have their own space and place, and as allies we do everything we can to support their efforts.”
“The march last year was great for visibility,” says Cutliff, who along with being a Grand Marshal in this year’s parade is also the chair for the Central Florida Trans March. “As local leaders, we really want to take on the responsibilities for our own communities, so that’s what we are doing with this march.”
Cutliff says that leaders of Orlando’s trans community discussed launching the Central Florida Trans March last year before the national team came to them with the opportunity to host the National Trans Visibility March.
“There was a lot of visibility around that march and around Central Florida, and we really appreciated that,” Cutliff says. “After last year we got together, looked at our wins and our losses and thought how could we be better and how could we showcase our local talent and local community better. Who would be better to do it than ourselves. So we coalesced with a lot of the trans leaders here locally, we wanted to make sure we got a large swath of the community. We wanted to make sure that everyone felt represented and we really were very intentional about the programming we wanted to put on this year.”
Cutliff says the team has worked closely with trans activist Nathan Bruemmer, who was instrumental in creating and leading the Trans Pride March at St Pete Pride. This inaugural event will not only feature a march but also a rally, which will take place at 1 p.m. at the COWP festival, but Cutliff points out that this isn’t a political rally rather an inspirational event.
“A lot of times, our visibility is around death, so we want to get to a spot where we are breathing life into our community,” she says. “When we say rally, we mean a coming together, a galvanizing of our goals and getting our love batteries recharged for our community. We are going to come together under the issues that are important for us and raise our voices in solidarity, in positivity and in love and light.”
Cutliff adds that it is important to have this kind of visibility and support in a place like Orlando because of the city’s position as a progressive area surrounded by a mostly conservative state.
“Orlando really is a beacon of hope in the Deep South and especially in the state,” she says. “We think it’s very important to have this visibility, to have this march, have this parade, because ultimately we want our lives to be seen as positive things. The bulk of the messaging around our lives and our advocacy is usually very heavy on the trauma bit but we can celebrate ourselves too. We can take ourselves seriously but we can also take space in our hearts to celebrate ourselves and give ourselves that grace to be human like everyone else.”
Come Out With Pride’s festival will be at Lake Eola Park Oct. 15 starting at 12 p.m. The Central Florida Trans March rally will start at 1 p.m. with the march helping to kick off The Most Colorful Parade at 4 p.m. For more information, go to ComeOutWithPride.org or check out the official Come Out With Pride guide here.
