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Planner calls off gay pride event

Mark Ferguson says he had trouble finding a place to stage the festival and lining up vendors and collaborators.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published June 9, 2006

Mark Ferguson planned to hold a celebration of gay pride in the heart of the suburbs. But last week, he called off the daylong festival.

Ferguson says he had a hard time finding a place to stage the event, and he said his would-be collaborators, the Showmen's Association in Gibsonton, got "cold feet."

"When you're trying to hold an event in an area where gay pride is not really accepted, you tend to get a little bit of resistance," he said.

Ferguson also said it "might have been a possibility" that he hurt the festival's chances when he sent a letter to Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms that Storms interpreted as a threat against her life.

Ferguson founded Brandon Pride, a gay-rights group, one year ago after Storms led the commission to ban official displays of gay pride.

As early as last fall, Ferguson began planning a weeklong series of events in the Brandon area, to fall on the one-year anniversary of the commission's vote.

The centerpiece would be an all-day, outdoor festival, complete with speakers, music and vendors.

Ferguson said he meant to invite Storms to the event when he sent her an e-mail in November.

Ferguson says he accidentally included a sentence that he meant to send to a friend. Storms, he wrote, "needs to stop telling everyone how to live their lives, or she may lose hers."

Ferguson later apologized and said he was referring to Storms' political life and was not actually trying to threaten her.

Storms referred the letter to the Sheriff's Office, which did not pursue charges.

Last week, Ferguson said he wasn't sure whether that incident had repercussions for his pride festival. He said he had a hard time finding a venue for the event.

At first, Ferguson tried to book a county park. But he said he was told the festival would interfere with Little League practice.

Later, he began talking with Lee Stevens, event coordinator for the Showmen's Association, a club for current and former carnival workers.

Stevens said the club, which has a picnic area, would welcome Brandon Pride.

"We're not a judge or a jury," he said. "We're pretty much open to everybody."

Stevens said Ferguson toured the club's facilities but never finalized the contract. Ferguson said he felt the Showman's Association may have gotten "cold feet."

"They didn't seem too comfortable when I asked them where a protest zone would be," he said.

In addition, he said, he was having a hard time pinning down vendors interested in participating in the festival.

"A lot of them were kind of questioning about the event being in Ronda's back yard," Ferguson said. "I tried reassuring them, but some of them were just backing off."

Storms could not be reached for comment.

Ferguson said he finally decided to call off the festival.

"We were needing a lot more support from the community in order to pull this off," he said.

However, he said that several smaller events - such as a mall walk and a reading of gay authors at the Bloomingdale library - will go ahead as planned.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 8, 2006, 13:50:26]