On Tuesday, a delegation from Orlando is traveling to Mexico to officially enter a bid to host WorldPride 2026. WorldPride is an international LGBTQ rights event that promotes visibility and awareness. The 12-person delegation will officially pitch Orlando at a bid presentation in Guadalajara on Saturday. “We’ve literally been working years to get to this point. So we’re so excited,” Tatiana Quiroga said. Quiroga is one of the Orlando delegates and the executive director of Come Out With Pride, the host of Orlando’s annual Pride Festival. “Orlando has been so much a part of my personal story through my whole entire coming-out process. This is where I met my wife. We got married. We’re raising two of our kiddos here. This is home,” she said. Quiroga explained that Orlando’s bid for 2026 is significant because it will be the 10-year remembrance of the Pulse nightclub shooting. “To be able to bring, literally invite the world and bring them to Orlando to celebrate Pride and, in a way, to show gratitude for all the support that we got for Pulse would just be — it kind of brings it all back around again. It’s a really nice circle of life kind of thing,” she said. Quiroga said WorldPride would also give Orlando the opportunity to highlight what it has accomplished in the decade since Pulse. “What we see here in Orlando is this incredible resiliency and unity that has really brought our community together,” she said. Orlando’s bid has been years in the making in partnership with Universal Studios and Visit Orlando. “This is the mega convention and the largest gathering of the LGBTQ community. So we couldn’t be more delighted that Orlando is being considered,” Casandra Matej said. Matej is the president and CEO of Visit Orlando. She said WorldPride would bring big business to Orlando after the event brought up to two million visitors to New York City in 2019. “You’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact,” she said. Orlando’s competition is Amsterdam. Matej said Orlando is well-equipped for the two-week event that will include an LGBTQ rights conference. “The fact that we’re the No. 1 meetings destination,” she said. “We’ve got the infrastructure, the hotels, the diversity of those choices and offerings. As well as so many things for people to see, do and enjoy while they’re here. We’re ready and we can handle it.”Quiroga said Orlando’s plan is to host the event in October 2026. Some programming would take place along International Drive. “Because we know that that would be an incredible parade, bigger than what we normally experience, which has already been called the largest parade in Orlando history. So, we know that we’re going to need a little bit more space,” she said. Orlando’s bid presentation is on Saturday. InterPride, the organizer of WorldPride, will announce the chosen host city a couple of weeks later after all committee members cast their votes.