“Jakob’s greatest joy in life is raising
two incredible kids with his husband,”
Tampa Pride says of their grand marshal,
something Hero-Shaw echoes. He and his
husband Alan, married in April 2017, are
currently raising teenage fraternal twins.
The duo told Watermark last year that
they decided early in their relationship
that “the kids come first.”
“It is a blessing to be able to represent
my church community and to set an
example for my two kids,” Hero-Shaw
says. “This is what it looks like to stand up
and celebrate who we are as a community
and as a family.”
GRAND MARSHAL:
RJANE CASTOR etired Police Chief Jane Castor
first joined the Tampa Police
Department in 1983. She was
elected the first female president of a
police academy class the following year,
and in 2009 became the first woman
and out lesbian to serve as the city’s
chief of police.
“After 31 rewarding years,” Castor
has said publicly, “I have retired… but
I couldn’t retire from serving the city
I love!” And it’s true. Her historical career
and community advocacy led Pride to
select the Tampa native as grand marshal
once again, and she remains active with
charities and nonprofits throughout the
Tampa Bay area.
“When I was first named chief, I said
the significance of being the first female
wasn’t lost on me,” Castor has told
Watermark. “But I wanted at the end
of my tenure to be remembered as a
good chief—not the first female or the
first gay female chief. I just want to be
remembered as being a good police chief.”
She is. Upon her retirement, Tampa
Mayor Bob Buckhorn praised her embrace
of technology and intelligence-led
policing. In naming her as a grand
marshal this year, Tampa Pride heralded
her work in redefining community
policing and cited her “innovative
approach to fighting crime.”
“She built a reputation for working
side by side with residents, community
leaders, business owners and
neighboring law enforcement agencies to
reduce crime and improve the quality of
life in Tampa,” Pride says.
CELEBRITY GRAND MARSHAL:
CCHRISTOPHER SEAN hristopher Sean, one of the few
actors on television battling
Asian underrepresentation, is
best known as Gabriel Waincroft on
CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and the popular gay
character Paul Narita on NBC’s Days
of our Lives.
Sean, who is of Japanese-American
descent, is the third Asian and
prominently gay character currently
appearing on television. The character’s
coming out episode was heralded as
groundbreaking, with BuzzFeed noting
that the “closeted professional baseball
player came out to his family in a
scene spoken entirely in Japanese with
English subtitles.”
In part, the actor identifies with the
LGBTQ struggle due to his heritage.
“Something I battled with a long time was
I’m not Asian enough to play Asian roles
and I’m not white enough to play white
roles,” he’s said.
While Sean himself identifies as
straight, he’s said publicly that he’s
“extremely blessed” to bring his character
Paul Narita to life. He’s noted that “he’s
head over heels in love, and that’s the
story we’re telling here.”
“It’s about love,” he’s said. “And in that
sense, I know exactly how that feels. To
be insanely in love and you’re gonna do
whatever you can to get what you want.”
| | Grand Marshals FROM PG.11
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