Pride Fort Lauderdale’s Continuing Collapse
Pride of the Americas parade in 2023. Photo by J.R. Davis.
4. Twenty twenty-three began with a plethora of problems for Pride Fort Lauderdale and ended with 2024 events being canceled. After a series of reports exposing Pride Fort Lauderdale’s (PFL) lack of transparency at nearly every level, major sponsors pulled out and the entire board resigned, save for President Miik Martorell.
Pride of the Americas, delayed for years due to the pandemic, was initially planned as a standalone event from PFL that organizers hoped to attract upwards of 350,000 people.
But in the end, organizers decided to merge the two events last year. The combined event was scaled back at the last minute, moving away from the beach. Friday night events were canceled, which led to the Pride On the Drive (POTD), a party in Hunters Nightclub parking lot.
That band-aid is becoming a more permanent solution. PFL has canceled the parade and Pride party, originally set for mid-February. Instead, POTD is expanding to two nights, with Thunderpuss on Feb. 9 and another performer (TBD) on Saturday.
PFL says they are focusing on holding smaller community events as part of their Pride 365 initiative.PFL continues to deny access to basic requests including meeting minutes and even when or where board meetings take place.
– John Hayden
