Mayor Keith James Cancels Pride Fest!
April 28, 2023
I was born and raised in America and believed we were the strongest country in the world. We were invincible. We were the country others depended on in a crises.
Our country has done incredible things. Our country has done shameful things, and now my country is starting to return to the past. I guess the old adage “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Below is a statement from Rodney Mayo telling how the mayor of WPB, Keith James, refused to grant a permit for the third annual Pride Fest.
The LGBTQ is once again under attack, and shamefully it’s coming from elected officials like WPB Mayor Keith James.
Sandy
Mayor Keith James Cancels Pride Fest!
“Last week the Pride on the Block organizers asked me if they should be worried about Mayor Keith James canceling the 3rd annual Pride Fest in Downtown West Palm Beach. I reassured them although Mayor James would most likely do anything, he could to hurt me and my businesses, he won’t dare cancel the Pride Fest organized by and to benefit Transpire Help, a not-for-profit created to provide support for the LGBTQ+ community in recovery.
I was dead wrong! Mayor Keith James surprised and shocked us all and denied the permit for the Pride Fest with no reason given.
“Plague! We are in the middle of a plague!” Larry Kramer shouts through the noise of people arguing at a meeting of Aids activists.
Some of us are old enough to remember the beginning of the Aids epidemic and the refusal of our government to address the crisis. Then, finally, a group named Act Up, headed by a charismatic rageful Larry Kramer, did just that, Act Up, and they made all the difference in turning the minds of most Americans and, in turn, our elected officials to not just stand by but commit vast resources to combat the Aids epidemic.
Larry Kramer’s words, unfortunately, ring true today as they did in the 1980s. There is a Plague today: not deadly biological virus but a Plague of the mind: of intolerance and stupidity. From the reversal of Roe V Wade, word assassination, banning gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom, and making it illegal for Drag Queens to perform, our society has genuinely regressed half a century in just a few years. All the struggles of Larry Kramer and Act Up, Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, were all for naught.
I have been losing faith in our City over the years as we live under a veiled dictatorship called the strong Mayor system. I’m sure the citizens who in 1991 voted to create a strong Mayor and elect Nancy Graham may have never envisioned the possible abuse of power this system allows and possibly encourages.
A strong Mayor may be beneficial when we are lucky enough to have an honest, dignified righteous Mayor with only the interest of its citizenry at heart. Still, when the opposite of those values is elected, we are in trouble.
And that is where we are now! We are in trouble.
The Plague is here, in Tallahassee, in far too many states, and in our City. This is no time for complacency. Serious consequences are at our doorstep if we do not act up.
Pride Fest was attended by over 2,000 citizens of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County last year. It was a great success and well received. As a result, the organizers this year decided to expand the event to 2 days, Friday and Saturday, June 2nd and 3rd, and add Rosemary Square as an additional location with events running simultaneously.
A full lineup of national performers and speakers was booked, and tickets purchased; expected attendance this year was over 3,000 people, all celebrating diversity and tolerance.
That has all vanished with one simple signature by our strong Mayor Keith James.
All of us involved in this event have reached out to our commissioners, congresswomen, City officials and community leaders to try and instill some reason into Mayor James and have him change his mind. All were sympathetic and supportive, but we repeatedly heard the same thing. Mayor Keith James holds power solely, and only he can grant the permit for Pride Fest on the Block.
We will continue the fight. We are not giving up. We can’t.
Join us tonight, Friday, on the 500 Block for the final Drag Show performance (as Mayor James also revoked the 500 Block weekend permits) and show your support for the LGBTQ+ community and our entire City and County.
Celebrate our diversity!
Please fill out the petition to send to Mayor Keith James telling him to approve Pride on the Block 2023
https://form.123formbuilder.com/6425713/save-pride-fest-2023
“The dynamism of any diverse community depends not only on the diversity itself but on promoting a sense of belonging among those who formerly would have been considered and felt themselves outsiders.”
— Sonia Sotomayor”
We will not go backwards!
The end