Cover Story

August 28, 08

Over the Rainbow

Drag the Flags Out of the Closet — Miami Beach Will Soon Let Gay Pride Fly High Over the City

By Ben Torter

Rainbows soon could be somewhere over Miami Beach, rain or shine.

As part of a movement that would have made Judy Garland proud, city commissioners are on the verge of voting to end a ban on the public display of the rainbow pride flag.

A longtime symbol of gay pride around the world, hanging the rainbow flag is currently illegal in Miami Beach, but not out of prejudice or homophobia — it was simply tied up in the minutia of city code that says only flags of sovereign nations can be flown from storefronts, homes and condos. But all of that is about to change.

“The gay and lesbian community is a vital part of the city,” Mayor Matti Herrera Bower said. “I’ve been listening to complaints that [the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community, or GLBT] is losing business and not feeling the warmth it used to feel. I want the community to feel welcome here.”

The movement to legalize the rainbow flag is a part of Bower’s push to lure back a community that helped shape Miami Beach.

“It’s a promotion for those who have left, saying, ‘Look, we miss you and want you back,’” Bower said.

The city has steadily lost both GLBT residents and tourists to Broward County cities such as Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale. She hopes that allowing businesses to display the rainbow flag will begin to turn the tide back toward the Beach.

The fact that publicly flying the rainbow flag is illegal in Miami Beach was brought up in March by members of the nascent Mayor’s Gay Business Development Ad Hoc Committee, which is made up of gay and lesbian business and community leaders.

Bower formed the committee out of a desire to help GLBT residents and visitors to Miami Beach regain a sense of community that many believe has been lost.

Committee chairperson Babak Movahedi, owner of Halo Lounge at 1625 Michigan Ave., says the flag’s iconography is important.

“The rainbow flag is a cultural symbol of the gay community, and to display it is a significant change from what the rules are at the present time,” Movahedi, a former Washington D.C. elected official, told the SunPost from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. “It will allow [GLBT] businesses to display — proudly — the rainbow flag, so that residents and visitors will be able recognize the [GLBT] businesses.”

Also known as the gay pride flag, the rainbow flag had its coming out in 1978 at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Designed by artist Gilbert Baker, the original flag had eight stripes, with each representative of a different idea: hot pink for sexuality; red for life; orange meant healing; yellow stood for sunlight; green was for nature; turquoise meant magic; blue was serenity; and violet for spirit. Over the years the flag has undergone redesigns. Some include a black stripe to represent the AIDS crisis. Others vary to represent the broad spectrum of people within the community. Today the most popular is a six-color version. A mile-long rainbow flag was sewn in 1996 for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City.

The process of legalizing the rainbow flag has moved along without resistance ever since members of the Gay Business Development committee made the decision to proceed. In a unanimous June 25 vote, the Miami Beach city commission pushed the item to the Land Use Committee, which voted to put the item on the Sept. 10 commission agenda for final approval.

“There’s some antiquated law that we need to change so that people’s freedom of expression is protected,” said Commissioner Jonah Wolfson. “This is a good opportunity to do just that. The rainbow flag is representative of a community we hold dear here in Miami Beach.”

The Gay Business Development committee, in conjunction with the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, has been the catalyst for sensitivity sessions that will be offered to local businesses through the Yes Institute. In another planned leap forward, the city’s first gay pride event will be held in Miami Beach on Saturday, April 18, 2009.

“It’s hard to believe a city as diverse and as inclusive of the GLBT community has not had an official Miami Beach gay pride [event] in the past,” said Bower. “I am very proud to be a part of such a historical event in our community, and will make every effort to ensure that the Miami Beach Gay Pride 2009 will be a success.”

Surprisingly, for a city made popular in part by the gay community, it’s been a long time in the making.

The gay liberation movement began nearly 40 years ago at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village, and since then, gay pride events are held in almost every gay destination city in the country.

The inaugural event will begin at noon on Saturday, April 18, with a parade complete with floats and a march on Ocean Drive from Fifth Street to 15th Street. Immediately following the parade, booths, food kiosks and exhibits will line Ocean Drive.

The day will end with an afternoon party featuring international DJs and other performers.

“This may be the first year for the official Miami Beach Gay Pride, but it has been a long time coming,” says Babak Movahedi, chair of the Mayor’s GLBT Business Development Ad Hoc Committee. “This will be a community-driven event created for and developed by Miami Beach GLBT residents. We are just planting the seed of an event that will foster a better sense of community within the City of Miami Beach.”

Miami Beach resident and activist Bob Kunst agrees that it’s time the city of Miami Beach shows more visible support for the gay community. Kunst is best known as the founder of the Oral Majority an organization that in 1977 countered a crusade by singer Anita Bryant, who sought to repeal a Miami-Dade County ordinance that made it illegal to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation.

Bryant’s efforts resulted in gay rights activists leading a boycott of Florida orange juice, because the Florida Citrus Commission had used her in advertisements. Gay bars across the country reportedly even took screwdrivers off their drink menus.

“Miami Beach rejected Anita back in ’77, and did it three other times,” Kunst said. “The beach should have [gay pride], from a historical perspective.”

The Miami Beach native can’t understand why Broward has lately become more of a gay mecca.

“The Beach has always been ahead of the game, so why would they move away?” Kunst said.

One example of the city’s progressive attitude toward gay rights is the official Miami Beach registry that recognizes domestic partnerships — it contains the names of roughly 300 couples.

However, George Neary, associate vice president of cultural tourism at the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, and a member of the Gay Business committee, chose not to postulate on Miami Beach’s loss of gay “pizzazz.”

“I think it’s a cycle of life,” Neary said. “People move to other places and want to take advantage of what other places have to offer.”

He explained that the Gay Business committee is looking to the future to be part of the next phase of gay tourism, and to remind people of Miami Beach’s openness.

“We have Winter Party, White Party, Aqua Girl and the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival,” Neary said. “Highlighting [those events] with gay flags … will further highlight Miami Beach as a gay destination again.”

Kunst agrees that once people start flying the rainbow flags around town, the city’s “consciousness” will again be lifted.

“It’s visibility and recognition,” Kunst said. “It gets everyone in the mood. It’s festive.”

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com