Gay Pride in Miami Beach

With the guests happy and enjoying a beautiful day, I decided I could venture South to the first ever Miami Beach Gay Pride http://www.miamibeachgaypride.com/ event. There had been a lot of local press and the organizers hoped for 5,000 or so. Boy were they surprised! The police estimated an attendance of 20,000+! Quite an impressive turnout!

I left the resort a little after 10am and hopped on the I-95. Deven was with me, along with a few boxes of material. He was actually working, representing the IGLTA at a booth set up to promote the organization and it's members. If you're curious about IGLTA, take a look at the website, http://iglta.org/. He's been working for them for a little over a month and loves his job!

We were about half way there when I noticed the message boards lit up above the freeway. The message was that the entire road was closed at 63rd Street! Within minutes, the traffic came to a complete stop. Another sign said the 3 left lanes were closed at 79th Street. We couldn't believe that they would schedule massive road construction on a busy Saturday. Shouldn't they do that at night?

What would have been a 35 minute drive, ended up a frustrating 2-hour trip. We arrived at the event area on Ocean Drive at 12:15pm. Of course Deven was very frustrated and upset that he was late. To save time, I dropped him off with the boxes of material. I would park the car and walk back later.

By the time I arrived, I had missed the Parade, but not the festival. The mood was very upbeat and everyone seemed to be having a nice time. There was a great mix of people. Gay, straight, young and old, all having an enjoyable time.

The Grand Marshall was singing icon, Patty LaBelle http://www.pattilabelle.com/ and Richie Rich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Rich_(designer). The event took a lot of planning and cooperation with government, business and dedicated citizens, sponsors and donors. The Mayor of Miami Beach, Matti Bower and Babak Movahedi, owner of Halo Lounge (Miami Beach and Washington, D.C. http://www.haloloungemiami.com/, along with many others all deserve a big thank you!

While wandering around, I ran into Ant http://www.antcomic.com/, the comedian. He was there to help a friend promote a new film festival in Miami. No, I don't remember the name of the festival. I think it was something to do with Latino Films though. Anyway, Ant stayed at Marys Resort almost 2 years ago. Teasing him, I wondered why he didn't stay with us on this visit. My answer was that the Hilton provided him a room. He'll assured me he would be back and really enjoyed his stay, back in 2007.

I hope you all have a nice week and think about visiting us soon!