Gulfport Pride brought celebrations to downtown Gulfport on Saturday, even as a nationwide trend shows Pride organizations losing sponsorships.According to Gravity Research, roughly 2 in 5 corporations, or 39%, scaled back Pride Month engagements in 2025. When Gravity Research asked a similar question in 2024, just 9% said they were changing their Pride engagement.WATCH: Local businesses fuel Gulfport Pride as national corporate sponsors pull back in 2025 Local businesses fuel Gulfport Pride as national corporate sponsors pull back in 2025But that trend was not enough to stop the momentum in Gulfport.Brett, who moved to St. Petersburg with his partner Stanley, said the community is what drew them here."We moved here last year from Virginia for pride for this community. St. Pete, I visited many times before, has just always been kind of the epicenter of feeling safe and supported," Brett said.For couples like Brett and Stanley, Gulfport feels like home. Brett said the fight for that sense of belonging is ongoing."We're not going to let anyone take it away from us, because that's what we're here for, and that's what we're going to keep doing," Brett said.Stanley said finding that place took time."It's been a hard time, just where I had come from, just trying to find like that place that feels like home. Luckily, I met him at a perfect time in my life, and we wanted to kind of make our place for ourselves, and St. Pete was kind of like the destination, it was all about focusing on where we felt safe, where like we could grow together," Stanley said.Stanley said the community itself made the decision easy."The community is so magnetic too, just being able to like clean ourselves and just immediately be drawn by everything that's around here, by the pride, by like the businesses, by all the people that are just so out and just amazing, just the community here is like great, and we're just glad to call ourselves residents of St. Pete," Stanley said.Scarlette Crawford has volunteered with Gulfport Pride for 3 years. She described what makes the city special."It's very eclectic, and you have all walks of life here, and there's just so much love and acceptance here, and everybody is so welcoming," Crawford said.Crawford moved to Gulfport four years ago from Seattle and said the warmth of the community surprised her."It's actually more welcoming here. I don't know if you've heard of the Seattle freeze, but people are much more warm and welcoming here in Gulfport," she said.She said this year's turnout felt different."Today has been fantastic. We have been so busy today, so yes, everybody came back in full force, even after the hurricane slowed us down a little bit, but we have a great amount of people coming out today supporting Gulfport Pride," Crawford said.Aimee Kosta, co-owner of WonderWorks Gulfport, helped make the street festival happen. It was her first year working with Gulfport Pride to produce the event. She said the organization was determined to move forward despite uncertainty."They were ready to go. They said, 'We want to do it, you know. I know there's, there's a lot of verbiage and direction coming from the government and from the state, saying, you know, if cities do this, this could happen, or if you, if certain factions of the city fund these things, you know, so everyone's scared and worried. But when Pride was coming up, they said, "No, we're going, we're going with it," Kosta said.Kosta said local businesses made the difference."There's a lot of sponsorships that came through, a lot of local businesses really showed up for it this year, and the vendors still want to be here in our town. Obviously, people still come, and they want to be here, and I think it's a really, really important event," she said.Gulfport Pride's website shows its sponsors, and only one is not a local business or business owner.Kosta said the event came together in a big way, with 70 vendors, an entertainment lineup, and strong local support."I personally haven't felt any of the negative thoughts coming in. It's been really positive. We've gotten a lot of sponsors, a lot of people still showing up for it, so it's been a great experience," Kosta said.Kosta said the community's history made the work feel urgent."Our town has a lot of retirees, a lot of senior people who led the charge in standing up for civil rights, for equality, for gay rights, and to see what's happening is it's sad to see all the work they've done. So we're not going to back down," Kosta said.While the street festival was full of celebration, attendees said they are not taking the moment lightly."This isn't a fun weekend activity, it's so much more than that. This is not even a way of life, this is who we are, and even if you take away funding, that doesn't erase us. We will continue to be here, and we, of all people, are very resilient people, and we will find a way," Brett said.Stanley said the strength of the community gives him confidence in its future."There's such a foothold and like a strength and stature to the community that no matter what happens, we'll always be here," Stanley said.Brett said that resilience is built into Pride itself."You can still celebrate and fight at the same time. I mean, and when you try to get overshadowed, you have to grow taller and get bigger," Brett said.Stanley agreed, adding that the community's roots run deep."The roots are so strong, too. It's just like we're so there's such a foothold and like a strength and stature to the community that no matter what happens, we'll always be here, and I think that's very, very important, like we never like never faltering, it's just always kind of just growing and being strong," he said.Brett offered a final thought on what keeps Pride going."If a plant has roots in the ground, you can cut it all the way back, and it doesn't matter, it's going to keep growing, and it will grow back stronger than ever," Brett said. ...read more read less