(Photo via Hope CommUnity Center)
This year, Hope CommUnity Center is celebrating Pride with another edition of Apopka Pride on Nov. 21 after a brief rescheduling.
The event was originally scheduled for Oct. 10, but it was canceled “due to the forecast of inclement weather,” as reported by Watermark Out News.
“Bloom Without Permission” is the chosen theme for the event. According to Zafia Gomez, LGBTQ+ services manager for Hope CommUnity Center and the event’s organizer, the meaning is an invitation to celebrate queer joy, collective power, and community care. She said the theme was chosen after thinking about the challenges that the community went through in the past couple of years.
“It means to continue taking up space, growing, especially in an environment that tells you that you shouldn’t,” Gomez said. “Our communities will always find a way to thrive.”
As a way to represent the theme, she invites all the attendees to dress up in their most colorful clothes and to bring their favorite flower to create a species of a “small garden” that represents the unity within the community.
“We are asking people to bring that, so that way we can kind of create a collection of all of these flowers at the end of the event to show like we all can bloom differently, even though we’re growing in the same garden,” she explains.
According to the organizer, the four-hour event will have a Health Hub and will include 15 healthcare organizations that will be providing testing related to HIV, STIs, diabetes and a “decompression” space to “practice mindfulness, have some stretches, a light mobility kind of session,” according to Gomez.
While in past years, the event was open to the full family, Gomez explained that for this year they decided to change to an 18+ function.
That change happened because of the new law restricting minors from attending drag shows in the state of Florida. The act “makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly admit a child to an adult live performance.”
“We’re trying to comply with that and take all the necessary steps to avoid any conflict with the state,” added Gomez.
While there is a certain limitation on who can be part of the event, she said that it is important to notify people about this significant change in the event.
“There will be drag. That is a very big part of our culture,” she said.
Mala Mia, Orusha San Miguel and Shanty Santos are some of the local drag artists who will be performing at Apopka Pride during the final hours of the event.
Other artists such as Charlie Rosario, a trans multi-instrumentalist artist based in Orlando, and a salsa band will be performing.
The event will also feature an art corner and over 40 vendors that include small businesses and grassroots organizations. Gomez said that many of them have been working with Hope CommUnity Center for the past couple of years and are there to do more than just give flyers.
“They’re there to represent the ecosystem of people that provide different services throughout Central Florida,” Gomez explained.
Apopka Pride will take place on Nov. 21 at 800 S. Hawthorne Ave and will run from 2 to 6 p.m. For more information, visit HCC-OffM.org.
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