When You Think Nobody Is Watching: Our Journey to Florida AIDS Walk
We are proud to announce that we at Hotspots Happening Out are a Florida AIDS Walk 2026 Beneficiary! An opportunity we are gracious for and overwhelmingly excited about as it will help us in our continuing nonprofit mission.
However, one might ask, who, what, where, when and how? And that’s ok. We totally get it! We haven’t done the best job communicating who we are, partly because most everyone only know us to be a magazine that once upon a time was for-profit. And then there’s our drive, we’ve been so focused on executing our nonprofit mission that we haven’t stopped to clearly share it with the world.
So, before we begin our journey with the Florida AIDS Walk and start asking for your support, we’re coming out of the closet to share all that we do in the community. Unbeknownst to many, we have always been a nonprofit. And here’s the backstory about it. In December of 2020, a relatively unknown local LGBTQ+ events nonprofit called the Wilton Manors Entertainment Group (known today as Hotspots Events) purchased Hotspots Magazine.
The nonprofit, whose goal in life was to produce social and cultural safe space events for the LGBTQ+ community, might not have been well-known but what we produced reverberated across Florida and beyond. Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival was our crown jewel attracting over 50,000 attendees annually to Wilton Manors in celebration of LGBTQ+ joy in the Pride Month of June. Our events didn’t stop there; because of Stonewall Pride’s success we were able to produce other local LGBTQ+ monthly events.
After our purchase of Hotspots Magazine, we converted the for-profit gay male entertainment magazine into a nonprofit LGBTQ+ entertainment and lifestyle publication committed to giving back to the community. Now, not only did we produce safe space LGBTQ+ social and cultural events, but we also gave media sponsorships to other LGBTQ+ nonprofits in a publication with a history of over 35 years in Florida. The money we receive for paid Ads goes directly into funding the completely free media sponsorship ones.
But we didn’t stop there. We combined forces with Happening Out, a not-for-profit LGBTQ+ television network, to amplify the absolutely free media support we provided to other community nonprofits giving them coverage in a circulated print publication with a substantial digital presence as well as free streaming views on shows like Queer News Tonight and the FayWhat?! Show.
Our dynamic alliance of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations unified our mission by enhancing the well-being of South Florida’s LGBTQ+ community and its allies through our 11 pillars of commitment, the LGBTQ+ Black and Latin/Spanish Community, Lesbian and Queer Women, the Transgender Community, Students and Youth, Seniors, Business and Faith Community, Social Justice, and HIV/AIDS and Healthcare.
By the end of 2021, just a year after purchasing Hotspots Magazine, we were giving back to the community to the tune of $100,000 in media sponsorships. We were also able to add to our event roster creating a LGBTQ+ Family-friendly Black History Month event, The Cookout and PrideFête, a LGBTQ+ Caribbean Festival, currently the only one across the nation.
We have increased our media sponsorships to over $500,000 annually over the years supporting organizations like Transinclusive Group, PRISM, Bowtie Kids, Ujima Men’s Collective, The McKenzie Project, Equality Florida, Outshine Film Festival, National LGBTQ Task Force, World AIDS Museum, The Men’s Wellness Conference, Palm Beach Pride, Miami Beach Pride, My Hollywood Pride, and the list goes on.
We continue to produce Stonewall Pride, celebrating the 25th Anniversary last year and we’re excited to announce that our 5th Anniversaries for our Cookout and PrideFête events will take place this year. Now that you have the backstory of who we are, I’m sure there are still questions about our connection to Florida AIDS Walk, produced by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). What links us to the charitable organization is our unwavering work in HIV/AIDS/STI prevention, treatment and education advocacy.
A longstanding initiative of our events division is our HIV Testing Initiative, which assures that we have HIV testing at all our annual events throughout the year. We’re also excited to announce that the MSM Advisory Group, a monthly community-based HIV/STI advocacy group for men who have sex with men, has become part of our family along with their Men’s Wellness Conference. It’s a natural fit as we have worked with the MSM Advisory Group to produce the Men’s Wellness Conference for the 2 years it was produced.
The group was left abandoned by the former governmental organization that housed it. For the better part of 2025, we have rebuilt the group with the help from its committed members. The dollar-for-dollar match that we receive from the Florida AIDS Walk will guarantee that the group can continue to operate in its vital mission to facilitate activities and meetings with the community in order to provide recommendations and suggestions for improving and achieving greater accountability for sexual health inclusive of the general well-being and the prevention, treatment and education of HIV/AIDS and STI programs. The match will also help to bring back the Men’s Wellness Conference this year!
