Florida's Largest Pride Welcomes Revelers This Week

St. Pete Pride Organizers Expecting Record Crowds in Celebrating Mood

St. Pete/Clearwater, FL (June 27, 2013) - Fresh off the heels of a major LGBT Supreme Court ruling, revelers in town for this week's St. Pete Pride---Florida's largest LGBT celebration---will have much to celebrate, from art exhibits, to fashion shows, concerts and more, culminating in Saturday's Street Festival and Promenade along St. Pete's Grand Central District.

This year, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater has invited two local partner organizations---Tampa International Airport and Visit Tampa Bay---to join in the VSPC booth at Saturday's parade, marking the first time the three organizations have joined forces to promote the entire region in the LGBT arena. And in yet another area first, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has announced plans to march in this year's St. Pete Pride Parade.

"The LGBT community is an important part of the travel industry, and this event speaks volumes about the level of diversity visitors will find when they travel to the St. Pete/Clearwater area," said David Downing, VSPC Deputy Director. "We're particularly excited to be welcoming our friends from Tampa to partner with us this year, since so many of our visitors celebrate pride on both sides of the Bay."

St. Pete Pride, which is in its 11th year, dwarfs similar gatherings in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, and draws thousands of visitors to the area's bars, restaurants and accommodations for the festivities.

The event drew some 100,000 attendees last year, but St. Pete Pride organizers believe attendance might approach 125,000 this year due to the GLBT community's response to the Supreme Court ruling earlier this week.

Local business owners say the more, the merrier.

"This is a fantastic event for our area," said Darren Connor, co-owner of The Queens Head Restaurant and Eurobar on Central Avenue in St. Pete. "And it's amazing for businesses throughout St. Pete/Clearwater."

Connor, whose restaurant is hosting a pride event this year, is especially fond of the parade. "The parade makes for a fun day, and we see visitors from around the world," he added.

Though the bulk of the pride events take place in St. Pete, visitors will find GLBT-friendly establishments throughout the area, from Clearwater's Pro Shop Pub to Blur nightclub in Dunedin, to the Flamingo Resort and Georgi's Alibi in St. Pete and a number of clubs in Tampa's GaYBOR District.

Not only is Saturday's parade the largest in the state, it's also the earliest, with festivities kicking off at 9 a.m.  For complete event information, visit stpetepride.com.

Brazil - citizens kick-off in protest at bad government spending decisions: Olympics/ World Cup

Brazil is on the world stage. It's hosting the World Cup and then the Olmypics. It's one of the fastest growing economies in the world - part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). It has one of the most diverse cultures and mix of races in the world. It has the most amazing natural habitat that is part of the World's lungs. It has the best parties, the most vibrant and kind people, incredible food...YET the people aren't happy.

For the first time in over 20 years the people in Brazil are standing up to its government. Not to force the PM to stand down, but rather to tell them to spend their money differently. Just watch this video to get a sense of what this Brazilian woman is feeling...

I asked my friends in Brazil what their opinion was:

Friend 1:

Hey my friend! It's happening the greatest protest in the history of Brazil!

 

Friend 2: 

The brazilians can't help so much corruption anymore, the government is spending 30 billion in stadiums to the World Cup, and the school, hospitals, roads, airports are trash! Our economy is going down, the inflection is eating our salaries... And many others wrong things!

I'm happy to see that the brazilians finally realized that life is more than samba and futebol. And we pay to much taxes and receive trash back! The most of demonstrators are peaceful but a little part of them are violent and take the opportunity to terrorize and sure some people get hurts but nobody dead.

but the problem is not only the world cup or olympics games!!!! the problem is 500 years of suffering, we have been explored for a long time, we want the governement spends with infrastruture. we have more priorities to invest this money.

 

Friend 3: 

As a people we are used to sucking it up every time the government do something arbitrary or harmful to us but now its about time someone actually did something about it as opposed to just moan. I'm not happy about the violence but I reckon its fair enough that people go out in the streets and shout back at those who think they can play us like chess pieces. We are absolutely thrilled that we are hosting the world cup and the Olympic games but we are NOT impressed that to achieve that our hospitals, schools, roads and etc are falling apart due to the lack of investment. The initial budget for the doing up of the stadiums was R$600 million and they reckon that by the time we're done we'll have spent just over R$1 billion. Where has that money gone and why wasn't it spent on what really mattered before? We really need to get our priorities right.

Plus, after years of being apathetic to what is going on around us and what's being decided about us this is the biggest demonstration of democracy we have had in bloody years. The mayor of Rio is particular deserves to be bitch-slapped for being such a wanker!

 

    

 

[*Note: figures mentioned are not exact, just examples of how they perceive the money spent] 

 

PR: What happens when you put Fierce and MAD together? A match made in bingo heaven!

FierceBingo, is very proud to announce that it has entered into an agreement with the Make A Difference Trust, in line with its mission to help and support the LGBT community.

FierceBingo has filled an otherwise untapped niche by bringing you the world’s first gay online bingo portal, with fantastic online games for LGBT people, as well as a safe and monitored chat room (Fierce Chat)  to get the community talking. There are regular exciting promotions and giveaways to reward you for your support, and welcome bonuses to grab your attention.

“Gay bingo has long been a medium for fundraising for the LGBT community. When we first set up FierceBingo, we wanted to make sure that we did what we could to give back to a worthy and relevant cause. It is therefore with great pride that we can confirm an agreement between FierceBingo and the Make A Difference Trust whereby Fierce will donate 3% of its monthly profits to MAD.

The Make A Difference Trust works to bring together the British Entertainment community and its audiences to raise funds to support people living with HIV and AIDS, and those in the entertainment industry facing hardship as a result of a long-term medical condition.”

The Make A Difference Trust has various programmes set up to support those in need, many of which target the LGBT community.

·       > The Crisis Fund – Set up to support those in the entertainment industry, living with HIV and experiencing health related poverty which impacts on their ability to maintain employment.
·       > The Next Stage Programme – Working alongside existing statutory services to support people back into work after long-periods of ill health.
·       > ACT Now! – Be Aware, Take Control, Get Tested Now! provides sexual health information, prevention supports such as condoms and information on PEP across the UK through theatres, dance studios and rehearsal spaces. The programme particularly targets LGBT and MSM groups.
·       > Are You Positive? – The charities education programme for schools, asking the difficult questions and getting people talking about the personal and social issues related to HIV
·       > Internationally The Make A Difference Trust works in southern Africa where it provides programming in: Food Security, Orphan Care, Education and Income Generation Programming, and has recently funded its 14,000th child with educational supports.
All of the programmes make a huge difference in the lives of those they assist on a daily basis.

Giving back and supporting our community is extremely important to us, and it gives us great joy knowing that we will be able to help fund the above programmes for LGBT individuals from the proceeds of the online bingo games that are played at FierceBingo.