Lakeland Marks Pride Month with Proclamation and Munn Park Event (2024)

Lakeland marked 2024 Pride Month with two events in the last few days: Pride in the Park on Saturday and a proclamation read by Mayor Bill Mutz at Monday morning’s City Commission meeting.

Pride in the Park: Nearly a thousand people packed into Munn Park on Saturday to celebrate Polk County’s LGBTQ+ community. The event culminated with the annual marching of the rainbow flag around the park.

“From our sponsors, vendors, and volunteers, to the incredible entertainers, dedicated law enforcement, and event attendees — your unwavering support proves that there truly is no place like home,” Polk Pride officials wrote on the organization’s Facebook page.

Nancy Ford Slavkovsky said she attended with her husband, as they do each year.

“This one was the best! I was surprised to see that there are so many churches involved and accepting people for who they are,” Ford Slavkovsky wrote. “The whole thing was so loving.”

Proclamation: Mayor Bill Mutz read a proclamation for Pride Month on Monday. Lakeland has issued similar proclamations every year since 2015 — with the exception of 2020 when in-person meetings were not held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, in 2022, Mutz was removed from the board of Lakeland Christian School for reading the proclamation.

The mayor said he represents all of Lakeland, not just one group. Citizens submit proclamation requests, which are used to recognize everything from high school cheerleaders to Historic Preservation Month. City commissioners do not vote on them.

Polk Pride founder Scott Guira accepted the proclamation.

“I think that it really says something about this community being open and inclusive and welcoming,” Guira said Monday morning. “So many people are moving to Florida, specifically to the Lakeland area, and I think that making proclamations of pride is so important, making sure those folks know that everybody is welcome here.”

Other cities: This year, the cities of Bartow, Davenport, Dundee, Haines City, Mulberry and Winter Haven also issued Pride Month proclamations, but neither the Polk County Commission nor the School Board did.

Opposition: Unlike past years when many people spoke for and against the proclamation, only one person addressed commissioners about it during Monday’s public comment time.

Lakeland resident Katherine Ciafardini, 28, called the LGBTQ+ Pride movement “a humanistic sex religion that puts man in the place of God.”

“I am a Bible-believing Christian, and I’m passionate about my history and values that I hold so, so dear,” Ciafardini said. “The day the city of Lakeland mounted those Pride flags on South Florida Avenue, and the day that they decided to endorse a central city celebration of Pride Month, is the day that our local government tried to bend my neck in submission to a sex religion that won’t rest until we bow down to their man-made god of tolerance.”

She said she believed it would be equally inappropriate for the city to fly a Christian flag or one that celebrates heteronormativity and the heterosexual nuclear family.

“You shouldn’t endorse their flag or mine,” Ciafardini said. “These moral issues should be advocated in the private social sphere, not the political sphere. Leave this debate to the people, to families, to the communities and to the churches.”

She ended her comments by imploring the commissioners to repent and accept Jesus.

A safe space: Guira saw a video of Ciafardini’s speech and said they shared several experiences: both grew up in Lakeland and both married their husbands here.

“Pride started through volunteerism and our desire to provide a safe space for our youth,” Guira said. “We will continue our efforts to ensure this remains a community that is inclusive and will organize to protect the LGBTQ+ community from the misinformed and disinformed.”

The proclamation came a week after the Rose Dynasty Center celebrated the opening of Lakeland’s first LGBTQ+ resource and support center. It will offer medical care, counseling, support groups and social events.