Naples Pride Fest: What is There to be Proud of?
- Eugene Wordehoff
- May 17
- 2 min read
Naples Pride Fest to be held at Cambier Park in Naples, Florida on Saturday June 7, 2025.
Founded in 2017, Naples Pride is a volunteer driven, grassroots non-profit dedicated to supporting and celebrating the LGBTQ+ community of Southwest Florida. Their signature event is the Naples Pride Fest to be held at Cambier Park in Naples, Florida on Saturday June 7, 2025. A federal judge has ruled that Naples Pride can include drag at Cambier Park as part of people’s First Amendment Constitutional rights.
The Naples city council says it will fight the federal ruling. This council voted unanimously to oppose this event. In a social media statement from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, he said he would “fight aggressively and swiftly to overturn “bad decisions.” This issue will eventually be decided in the courts.
According to Wikipedia, “Opposition to legal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people exist worldwide. Opponents of LGBTQ rights may object to the decriminalization of homosexuality, laws permitting civil unions or partnerships, same-sex parenting and adoption, the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the military, access to assisted reproductive technology, and gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for transgender individuals.”
Mental Health America discloses that 4.5% of the U.S. population identifies as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Of those, over 39% reported having a mental illness in the past year. That is nearly 5.8 million people, more than the entire population of Kentucky.
The Trevor Project is a national organization is focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ young people and estimates more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ young people in the U.S. seriously consider suicide annually.
If this was such a great lifestyle, why all the mental issues? There is no reason to expose children to this radical lifestyle.
Eugene Wordehoff
Marco Island
People like to bring up 'Why the mental issues' as if being gay is a cause without understanding why many gay and queer adults end up with anxiety disorders or depression (which many straight people have as well). For many who are gay, the cause of their anxiety and depression can be rooted in the homophobia and rejection from those in their life, along with other life factors that many adults experience (death, sickness, economic hardship). I believe you would also develop an anxiety disorder if you were estranged by your family or a victim of homophobic aggression which many gay people are. This is why Pride is a thing - for everyone person that calls us radical, perverted, or…