Gay Pride

Mayoral committee hopes to restore the city’s gay image

By Ben Torter

Most people know that the rainbow flag is seen as a symbol of the gay community throughout the world. It is proudly hung in neighborhoods with large gay populations, like Greenwich Village in New York City.

But in Miami Beach, where domestic partnerships are recognized with an official registry, it’s actually illegal to hang the rainbow flag. The ban doesn’t have anything to do with discrimination. It’s more a technicality.

“The code allows flags of the United States and other sovereign nations, but it treats flags like the rainbow flag as nonconforming,” Deputy City Attorney Raul Aguila explained. He’s the city’s legal liaison to the Mayor’s Gay Business Development Ad Hoc Committee, which had its first meeting at City Hall on March 26.

The issue of the rainbow flag was raised as members of the 17-person committee of gay business leaders discussed their goals, such as how to re-create the sense of community among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and businesses that many think has faded with higher costs of living and doing business in Miami Beach.

“The first priority is to create a sense of community for those who live here and want to move here,” said committee Chair Babak Movahedi, owner of Halo nightclub and a former elected official from Washington, D.C.

Many at the meeting longed for the Miami Beach of 15 years ago, with its bohemian feel and small stores and restaurants. They agreed that Miami Beach is losing its edge, along with a lot of LGBT residents and tourists to places like Fort Lauderdale.

“I’m concerned we’re becoming a generic Anywhere, U.S.A.,” said committee member Nellie Barrios, a 9-year Beach resident who is on the board of the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Bower, the city’s first Cuban and first female mayor of Miami Beach, founded the committee to help strengthen the city’s LGBT community. She told the committee that she thinks what has happened to the LGBT community in Miami Beach is what eventually happens to all minority communities — they become mainstream, and thus lose a sense of identity. She suggested organizing as a strong voting block is one way to be heard.

“If the perception continues that the gay community doesn’t vote, you aren’t going to get it,” Bower said.

“We’re the organization of the future, not the past, and we need to figure out how to make us the vanguard,” said committee member George Neary, the cultural tourism associate vice president for the Great Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The committee’s first meeting was organizational. It created four subcommittees to explore issues related to LGBT residents, businesses, tourism and special events. It will meet the second and last Tuesday of each month. The next meeting is April 18 at 1 p.m. at Miami Beach City Hall.

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