Cosmetic
Dental
OWNER/PUBLISHER
Rick Todd
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jeremy Williams
MANAGING
Ryan Williams-Jent
CREATIVE DESIGNERS
Caitlin Sause
Dylan Todd
SALES DIRECTOR
Danny Garcia
ACCOUNT MANAGER
Daisy Chamberlin
CONTRIBUTOR
Shyler Oras
FOUNDER
Tom Dyer
Watermark Out News has served Tampa Bay for over 30 years, showcasing the region's LGBTQ+ highs and lows as only a news source dedicated to serving our community can.
Our coverage has regularly extended to Pride celebrations in Tampa over the decades, including the first iteration of Tampa Pride which ran from 1982-2002 and its current iteration, which launched in 2015. The latter formed after the repeal of Hillsborough County’s ban on the official recognition of such events in 2013, a discriminatory policy enacted in 2005.
“In 2002, Tampa saw its last large Pride event fizzle,” Watermark Out News reported in 2015. “Some blamed a lack of grassroots efforts. Others claim financial improprieties led to its demise. But Tampa Pride President Carrie West makes one thing very clear,
this year’s Tampa Pride is unrelated to the old organization.”
West, who still leads Tampa Pride, shared at the time that “Tampa needs to be seen as a progressive big city that is diverse and welcoming to LGBT people.” In the years since the city elected Jane Castor as Tampa’s 59th and first openly LGBTQ+ mayor — twice — and Tampa Pride has only grown.
Today, the celebration exists “to organize year round events, culminating in an annual Pride event that celebrates members of the LGBTQ+ community in Tampa and the surrounding areas — championing our shared experiences, honoring our differences
and strengthening our community,” their website reads.
Watermark Out News is proud to present our second annual Pride in Tampa magazine to detail the event and the community that makes it possible. In these pages we check in with Mayor Castor, discuss this year’s 11th Tampa Pride and highlight your grand marshals, royal representatives and more.
Happy Pride, Tampa! From the Watermark Out News family to yours.
—Ryan Williams-Jent, Managing Editor
Greetings:
Tampa, Florida is known globally for its diversity and inclusivity, celebrating all our citizens, businesses, and organizations for their impact within our city’s neighborhoods. We promote the contributions the members of the community make in adding to Tampa’s success as a forward-thinking city and in enhancing our economic growth, improving our region, advancing the arts and culture scene, and contributing to our distinctive heritage. Our unique and rich culture have fostered a strong inclusiveness that protects both residents and visitors from discrimination and harassment, including those within the LGBTQ community.
Tampa was one of the first cities in the region to have a domestic partnership registry and the City continues to be committed to social progress including actively supporting LGBTQ owned businesses through the City’s Equal Business Opportunity Program, and consistently receives the top score of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Municipal Equity Index for our LGBTQ inclusive laws, policies, and services. Every year, Tampa Pride Day is proclaimed, and the entire city celebrates year-round with festivals, parades, sporting and cultural events, concerts, and more. This year we will celebrate more than a decade of Tampa Pride in our city, and the second edition of the 2025 Pride in Tampa magazine will look back at the ways Tampa has proudly supported individuality, and the contributions the members of the LGBTQ community have made in Tampa Bay.
Tampa will not lose sight of what is most important – doing the right thing. Our city never fails to come together through difficult times, and the community demonstrates its love for one another and sees our differences as strengths. We are fortunate to have many dedicated organizations such as Tampa Pride, Inc., the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber, Metro Inclusive Health, and CAN Community Health that help keep diversity in the forefront.
Congratulations to Watermark Publishing Group on its second annual 2025 Pride in Tampa publication. This magazine will provide Tampa Bay area residents and visitors with many wonderful highlights of the past decade and a preview of engaging and inclusive events to come, specifically tailored for the LGBTQ community.
Sincerely,
Jane Castor
Tampa Pride asked the community to nominate representatives for this year's celebration. Meet the deserving honorees for 2025 here.
From working as a volunteer liaison for the Hispanic Services Council to becoming Watermark Out News’ social media coordinator, Luis Salazar’s contributions to Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community are extensive. He also serves as vice president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, which represents LGBTQ+ Floridians to the state’s Democratic Party through 21 chapters. That includes the Hillsborough County LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, of which he serves as president.
“I step into spaces to advocate for our community at the local, state and national levels, representing all those communities,” he explains. “My favorite aspect about our Tampa Bay community is our biggest strength, which is our diversity.
“We are capable of shining in so many glorious ways and finding joy in the face of adversity,” he continues. Also a veteran who’s traveled six continents, Salazar insists that “Tampa Bay is the only place I have wanted to call home.” The Tampa area is so spectacular to Salazar because he can “see its beauty, potential for good and justice, and the community that LGBTQ+ people fight for every day.”
While he warns that “we are about to see some very difficult times for our LGBTQ+ community,” Salazar's confidence in our resilience remains. “We have been through this before. The LGBTQ+ community is valiant and ready to protect each other as much as we celebrate each other when the time comes to do so.”
Free Mom Hugs operates as a volunteer network dedicated to making a difference for the LGBTQ+ community through visibility, education and conversation. Volunteering as a state chapter leader, Anne-Marie N. Hoeck says that working closely with others to better Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community “makes me better.” Long before her work in advocacy, she already had close ties to the community.
“As far back as the 1980’s during my school years, I had friends who weren’t ready to come out and my high school boyfriend came out to me as we parted ways,” she recalls. She adds that she remains on good terms with these people from her past, and she is now a mother to three queer-identifying children herself.
“Providing safe spaces, creating chosen families and the pure joy they share with others is something I have never found anywhere else,” she says of Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community.
As a fierce ally, Hoeck is “beyond grateful for their acceptance and allowing me to hear their stories, to give them support when they need it and of course offer all the hugs I can.” She’s also thankful that Tampa Pride gives her a space to stand “for equal rights, visibility, respect and providing everyone a place to be their full authentic selves.”
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Joe Ebbing and Scot Kleinhanzl have participated in Tampa Bay Pride celebrations for nearly 14 years, representing their United Church of Christ and local organizations at various events together. They “feel the celebration of Pride is important for the community as it helps create awareness and education.”
It also “helps young people realize they are not alone in their struggles of coming to terms as to whom they might be,” the couple adds. They say Tampa Pride in particular is important to them because “it brings the community together regardless of differences and celebrates the diversity that allows the community to work together with compassion and respect for each other.”
Both have called Tampa Bay home for decades and have made successful careers for themselves alongside their participation in the local LGBTQ+ community. Behind the scenes, they have volunteered and collaborated on behalf of their church with Tampa Pride’s parade, Rainbow 5K Run and organizations like GaYbor, PFLAG Tampa, the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber, the Hillsborough County LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus and more. Additionally, the couple has promoted the Tampa Pride Band and Gay Men’s Chorus, and Joe served as Tampa Pride’s liaison for the celebration’s Interfaith Pride Service in 2024. He’ll do so again this year.
The couple works to “represent their United Church of Christ philosophy by their daily lives, ‘No matter where you are on your life’s journey or on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here,’” they explain. “Love is love.”
Diane Haymes has always been drawn to photography, and to capturing the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals.
“Nothing makes me happier than photographing someone who has never felt comfortable in front of a camera because the results haven’t reflected their true self,” she says. “When I can produce work that brings them joy as they feel connected to the picture, I feel accomplished.”
Although Haymes has spent much of her life in the software industry, her photography has been featured through work with organizations like Out Front Theatre, Tampa Pride, St Pete Pride, OUT Georgia Business Alliance and TransNetwork. An Atlanta transplant, she also served as the lead photographer for the organization’s own Pride celebration.
When reflecting on her work within the LGBTQ+ community, she thinks back to when she first began her transition. “I felt that I had to pass… if someone made me as trans then I had failed,” she explains. She then realized “if they saw me as a trans woman they were seeing my authentic self and that was the goal.”
“I set my own personal agenda to first, be visible and proud and secondly to educate others about gender whenever I could create an opportunity,” Haymes continues. Wanting to be seen as more than her gender identity, she aimed to normalize the act of being trans itself. “People are told to hate the trans community without any reason and most have never met a trans individual... I want to be someone that meets a lot of people and is hard to hate.”
In that and more, Haymes has found great success. It’s something she carries with her into Tampa Pride 2025, "an opportunity to stand up to the bullying and show the community that we will not be erased."
David Warner and Larry Biddle have made significant contributions to LGBTQ+ Tampa Bay. As an actor, freelancer for outlets like The Gabber and Watermark Out News as well as former editor of Creative Loafing, David has covered LGBTQ+ topics impacting those in and outside of the region. Larry is a well-known fundraiser, gathering over $480 million for nonprofit and political organizations throughout North America.
The husbands celebrated their 30th “meet-a-versary” in 2022, having first connected in Philadelphia in 1992. Their courtship led to their civil union in 2003 and legal wedding in 2012. Both David and Larry are now members of the Equality Florida Council, contributing monthly to the organization’s vital efforts to achieve full equality for Florida’s LGBTQ+ community.
The couple says celebrations like Tampa Pride are more important than ever “amidst a national political climate that’s become increasingly regressive and repressive,” calling on the community to “make our voices heard and wave our flags proudly.”
Judy B. Goode has been an active member in Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ scene for over 40 years, largely because of Tampa Pride. Since coming out in 1984, she has attended its various iterations as an advocate and entertainer and says 1989 was a particularly memorable year for her as the opening act for Helen Reddy.
Since Pride returned to Tampa in its current iteration, Goode has taken the stage every year with longtime pianist Paul T. Brechue. While their music careers first converged in 1984, they have been playing together consistently since 2004. Goode says that although she lives and works in St. Petersburg, “Tampa Pride is closer to my heart.” When she and Paul were informed they would be honored as Celebrity Grand Marshals this year, she adds, the duo “couldn’t believe it.”
“I have been performing at the same hotel in downtown Saint Pete at the Hollander for 12 years… I didn’t think people in Tampa would actually remember us but they did,” Goode says. “We may not be famous, but everybody here has made us always feel like stars."
Greg Dee is widely known across the Tampa Bay area as the morning meteorologist on ABC Action News. In his personal life, however, he works to better the local LGBTQ+ community by being himself.
“I stay authentic,” he explains. “I post my life, with my husband and dog. I try to showcase ‘us’ as one would showcase any other family without drawing attention to it.” Additionally, he “spends hours driving around the Bay area visiting local schools… teaching kids about weather, severe weather safety, and building a passion for careers in math and science,” his ABC Action News bio reads.
When he learned he had been selected as this year’s Community Leader Grand Marshal, Dee felt “really honored and humbled.” He explains that it "makes my heart full knowing that other people see me as a positive addition to the LGBTQ+ Tampa community."
Reflecting on his time at previous Pride events, Dee says “I really enjoy meeting everyone during all the different events... it’s also just a ton of fun.” To Dee, Pride is important because it serves as “an opportunity to celebrate our unique LGBTQ+ community." He says to "be you and live your life for YOU, no matter what is going on around us."
Ryan Williams-Jent
The search for Tampa Pride’s 2025 representatives began last year, culminating at the Mr. & Miss Tampa Pride Pageant on Sept. 22, 2024 at Southern Nights Tampa. Organizers promised “an event you don’t want to miss, filled with glamor, talent and pride,” something contestants and the pageant’s entertainers more than delivered on.
Seasoned competitors Amari Lavish — also a prevention and sexual health specialist at Metro Inclusive Health and Niomi Onassis Knight, also a hairstylist — were crowned Mr. and Miss Tampa Pride 2025. Meet them here.
Amari Lavish, Mr. Tampa Pride 2025
What do you love about Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community?
I love the support of one another. For the most part, we’re all a family and stick together. There’s not much division here amongst the LGBTQIA+ community.
What does Tampa Pride mean to you?
It means history to me. It means legacy to me. I’m a proud gay man, born and raised in Tampa, so Tampa Pride will forever be a part of my history and legacy.
How did you prepare for the pageant and how did it feel to win your title?
I prepared for the title in silence so I wouldn’t be distracted by those knowing I was preparing to compete, which at times can knock you off track when others feel "you should do this or wear this or not wear that.” So winning Mr. Tampa Pride on my first attempt felt amazing because it’s HOME. I prepared on my own and I did everything I wanted to do MY WAY — the Lavish way — which made it even more rewarding for me.
What other titles have you won?
I’m the current Mr. Tampa Pride, Mr. St Pete Pride, former National Showman, Royal Pride of Nations
and a plethora of other national, regional and state titles.
What else do you want people to know about you?
I’ve started a social support group at Metro Inclusive Health called The L.A.V.I.S.H Group, which means Let’s Advance and Validate Inclusivity and Sexual Health … you can expect a warm and friendly environment. Open discussions on various topics. Resources, networking and information sharing. Confidentiality and respect for all participants, regardless of gender, race, sexuality or preference.
What do you want to share about Tampa Pride 2025?
It’s going to be an AMAZING Pride season. Tampa Pride has some great events lined up.
Curated from the collection of the Historical Society of Central Florida, in collaboration with individuals and organizations throughout the community, Orlando Collected marks the city’s 150th anniversary with the exhibition of 150 of some of the most fascinating and rarely seen items from Orlando’s history.
What do you love about Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community?
Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community is a beautiful, vibrant family, full of resilience, love and undeniable talent. What I love most is the way we show up for one another — whether it’s through drag performances, community events, or just being there when someone needs a little extra support. The sense of unity and celebration is unmatched. We are bold, diverse and unafraid to shine. That energy is contagious.
What does Tampa Pride mean to you?
Tampa Pride is more than just an event — it’s a powerful statement of visibility, love and strength. It’s a moment where we not only celebrate how far we’ve come but also acknowledge the work that still needs to be done for
equality and representation. To me, Tampa Pride is a reflection of our journey, our triumphs and our unwavering commitment to authenticity. It’s where we take up space unapologetically and remind the world that we are here, we are proud and we are unstoppable.
How did you prepare for the pageant and how did it feel to win your title?
Preparing for the pageant was a journey of passion, dedication and resilience. It took months of rehearsing, perfecting every detail of my presentation and truly embodying the essence of what my title represents. From wardrobe selection to performance refinement, I poured my heart into making sure I could deliver my very best — and when I heard my name called as Miss Tampa Pride, it was an overwhelming rush of emotions joy, gratitude and validation of all the hard work I put in. It was a moment I will cherish forever because it wasn’t just a win for me, it was a win for everyone who has ever felt unseen or unheard.
I’ve had the honor of holding 85 bar, state, regional and national titles, including my current Miss Tampa Pride, Miss Gay Southern Belle USofA, Miss Florida Gay United States At-Large and Miss Gay United States At-Large. Each crown represents my love for the art of drag, my commitment to the community and my drive to inspire others to embrace their own unique beauty!
else do you want people to know about you?
I want people to know that everything I do comes from a
place of love and passion — for my community, for my art and for the people who inspire me every day. I believe in the power of transformation, not just in beauty but in spirit. My journey has been filled with challenges, but I stand here today because of the strength I’ve found in myself and the support of those who believe in me. I am more than a performer; I am a storyteller, an advocate and someone who hopes to leave a lasting impact on the world. I promise, this is only the beginning!
Tampa Pride 2025 is going to be bigger, bolder and more spectacular than ever! We are bringing an energy that will uplift, inspire and unite. Expect breathtaking performances, powerful moments of representation and a celebration that truly honors the heart of our community. I can’t wait to see everyone come together again to make memories, share love and showcase our fabulousness. Mark your calendars because Tampa Pride 2025 is not to be missed!
MONDAY, MARCH 24
Held in the city block of The Portico, 1001 N. Florida Ave., guests will gather in the community hall for an interfaith service from 7-8:15 p.m. open to those belonging to all faiths. The service seeks to create unity, reflect and rise in body and spirit to create an inclusive world for all. Before the main service, the Portico Cafe will open at 5:30 p.m. along with tabling by faith-based organizations from 6-7 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 28
The Tampa Police Department will host a Pride with the Police event featuring the Special Incident Management Unit for coffee, conversations and networking with LGBTQ+ business and community leaders at District III Station 3808 N. 22nd St. starting at 9 a.m. This event gives community members the opportunity to meet the unit responsible for planning on the police side of the Diversity Parade, have open conversations about safety concern and join Tampa’s Safe Place initiative, detailed at WatermarkOutNews.com.
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
This year’s Vendor Festival and Artisan’s Fair will be held 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., featuring local and national participants. The Health & Wellness Fair will also take place from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., where local and national organizations will provide education, testing and other resources to keep the community educated, engaged and safe. A low-sensory area will be located nearby, allowing attendees to take a quiet break from the festivities with historic Ybor views, and the Food Truck Lane also returns from 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Tampa Pride’s main stage is in the Cuban Club Courtyard. The 2025 Royal Court and other fan favorite entertainers are expected to perform hourly from 12-4 p.m., including kick-off messages from community leaders at 2 p.m. Performers will also feature hourly at the Pride Lounge 2nd Stage, located inside the Cuban Club. Performances will begin once again at 7 p.m. for Pride @ Night, which is 18+.
Located in the historic GaYbor district of Ybor City, the 2025 Diversity Parade will commence at 4 p.m. Participants will begin checking in at 2 p.m. The parade will start on the corner of Nuccio Parkway and E. 7th Ave. and head east, then down E. 7th Ave. to N. 20th St. where it will turn north before dispersing.
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT:
GAY MEN’S CHORUS OF TAMPA BAY
Communications@GMCTB.org GMCTB.org
JEFF KLEIN, COMEDIAN
JeffKleinComedy.com
OPERA TAMPA –STRAZ CENTER
813-229-7827
StrazCenter.org/Opera-Tampa
THE CIRCUS ARTS
CONSERVATORY
941-355-9805
CircusArts.org
DENTAL SERVICES:
DELIZ DENTAL STUDIO
813-755-1800
DelizDental.studio
FOOD AND BEVERAGE:
BELLABRAVA TAMPA
813-524-5226
BellaBrava.com/Locations/
HEALTH AND WELLNESS:
CAN COMMUNITY HEALTH
CANCommunityHealth.org
EMPATH HEALTH
888-855-2838
EmpathHealth.org
INCLUSIVE CARE GROUP
727-753-7787
InclusiveCareGroup.com
RETAIL: GOLD AND DIAMOND SOURCE
727-573-9351
GoldAndDiamond.com
MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES:
ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL HISTORY CENTER
407-836-8500
TheHistoryCenter.org
TAMPA MUSEUM OF ART
813-274-8130
TampaMuseum.org
NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION
ICG Foundation ICGFDN.org
PHOTOGRPAHER: DYLAN TODD
PHOTOGRAPHY
727-310-1212
DylanToddPhotography.com
DAN CASPER - SMITH & ASSOCIATES REAL ESTATE
773-965-6465
DCasper@ SmithAndAssociates.com
TRAVEL AND TOURISM:
ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT / MCO 407-825-2001
OrlandoAirports.com
