HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — This weekend is one of the biggest weekends to celebrate pride in the Tampa Bay area. Several events and celebrations are taking place to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
We're learning that support is really important as members of the LGBTQ+ community tell us they are still receiving hate for celebrating pride.
We spoke to Jeffrey Kalmin, a local fitness instructor who hosted several Pride-themed fitness classes in June. Unfortunately, they were met with some hate online.
“I was really excited. It had a voiceover [about] what Pride meant to me, and there were just some negative comments from bots, haters, whoever in the comments saying some really nasty things about Pride, about myself,” Kalmin said.
Those comments came on a joint Instagram post between Kalmin and Alo Moves.
He's a local instructor for CAMP Tampa but also has a national reach, teaching on-demand classes for Alo Moves.
While many comments from Alo Moves members were supportive of the Pride class, some were hateful towards the LGBTQ+ community.
“This is why Pride Month is so important because there are still people trying to take away our rights, still people who don't realize there's so much negativity out there,” Kalmin said.
Kalmin said those comments are not getting him down. Instead, he is using them to spread awareness and encourage people to show love not hate.
“If you let that negativity bring you down, then they win," he said.
"I felt like it was really strong-arm robbery."
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