Pridefest '06
Pridefest grows, and big biz follows it
The 29th annual Pridefest attracted thousands and big-time corporate sponsorship but maintained its traditional meaning.
BY ASHLEY FANTZmailto:FANTZafantz@MiamiHerald.com
Call them signs of the times: Washington Mutual, American Express, and Enterprise sponsorship banners greeted long lines at Pridefest in Fort Lauderdale over the weekend.
The two-day 29th annual festival celebrating everything gay attracted some 30,000 people who perused nearly 350 booths that hawked political candidates, information on the latest HIV treatments, gay-friendly churches, racks of teeny rainbow-colored boy shorts, and a cruise line promoting on-board commitment ceremonies.
Not far from the Starbucks booth, 49-year-old C. Cooley and his partner of a decade, 45-year-old Tom Dickie, sipped Bacardi and cranberry spritzers with their friends Greg Gallo and Peter Pekkala, who have been together for 26 years and recently bought a condo in Broward.
Cooley and Dickie, who live in a Michigan suburb, met at their job on an assembly line at General Motors in Detroit. ''Where we're from, you'd never see anything like this. The gay community [there] is disorganized,'' said Dickie, shirtless and wearing pink sparkly sunglasses and a rainbow-colored peace-sign necklace.
''This is so positive,'' he said. ``It feels like a real community.''
Despite large obstacles, such the state's ban on gay adoption, South Florida -- and Broward in particular -- has cultivated a national image as a gay refuge. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department runs ads targeting a gay and lesbian audience and try to hire gay officers.
GAY BOOMTOWN
A local chapter of the national gun rights group, the Pink Pistols, formed this year in Wilton Manors, which was dubbed a ''gay boomtown'' by The New York Times. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a Rainbow Guide, a long list of gay-friendly businesses.
Is Pridefest, which began 29 years ago as a mostly political rally, necessary anymore?
'Yes, because we need our time, a space to interact when we can say, `This is ours,' '' said Rick Wolfe, who lives in Miami Beach.
BIGGER EACH YEAR
Mark Ketcham, 45, of Fort Lauderdale, recalled the much smaller Pridefest he first attended 11 years ago. Businesses have gone where the market is, and the gay community in South Florida is better for it, he said.
''There are Mercedes and Cadillacs and Beemers in the parking lot,'' he said. ``You can't run a company that discriminates against gays.''
Organizer Sonia Mitchell remembers Pridefest seven years ago when the event catered mostly to gays. ''It's more a family thing now,'' she said. ``There are straight people, kids, every kind of person having a good time.''
Jodi Sherman, 48, laughed and plunked down $15 for a camouflage T-shirt that read ''Redneckbear'' -- a slang term for a beefy gay man. The purchase was her way of supporting her daughter's fiancé who is serving in Iraq.
BEST FRIENDS
The Weston mother of three, who is straight, said her best friends, Mark Rode, 33, and his boyfriend Tim Kingston, 43, asked her to join them.
''I would do anything for these guys,'' she said. ``I just love them. You know, I raised my kids not to be prejudiced and it really upsets me to think that they wouldn't have the same rights as me.''
The three met 12 years ago when Rode and Kingston moved to Sherman's Sunrise neighborhood. 'We didn't want to live in a gay community. The gay community couldn't believe it. They were like, `You're going to live on the outside?' '' recalled Rode. ``Everyone [in the Sunrise neighborhood] was accepting of us.''
But he and his partner of 17 years still experience subtle bigotry. ''It's not as accepting as it should be. We're not registered as domestic partners,'' he said. ``They don't give us civil unions.''
For those reasons, Pridefest will always have its place.
The 29th annual Pridefest attracted thousands and big-time corporate sponsorship but maintained its traditional meaning.
BY ASHLEY FANTZmailto:FANTZafantz@MiamiHerald.com
Call them signs of the times: Washington Mutual, American Express, and Enterprise sponsorship banners greeted long lines at Pridefest in Fort Lauderdale over the weekend.The two-day 29th annual festival celebrating everything gay attracted some 30,000 people who perused nearly 350 booths that hawked political candidates, information on the latest HIV treatments, gay-friendly churches, racks of teeny rainbow-colored boy shorts, and a cruise line promoting on-board commitment ceremonies.
Not far from the Starbucks booth, 49-year-old C. Cooley and his partner of a decade, 45-year-old Tom Dickie, sipped Bacardi and cranberry spritzers with their friends Greg Gallo and Peter Pekkala, who have been together for 26 years and recently bought a condo in Broward.
Cooley and Dickie, who live in a Michigan suburb, met at their job on an assembly line at General Motors in Detroit. ''Where we're from, you'd never see anything like this. The gay community [there] is disorganized,'' said Dickie, shirtless and wearing pink sparkly sunglasses and a rainbow-colored peace-sign necklace.
''This is so positive,'' he said. ``It feels like a real community.''
Despite large obstacles, such the state's ban on gay adoption, South Florida -- and Broward in particular -- has cultivated a national image as a gay refuge. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department runs ads targeting a gay and lesbian audience and try to hire gay officers.
GAY BOOMTOWN
A local chapter of the national gun rights group, the Pink Pistols, formed this year in Wilton Manors, which was dubbed a ''gay boomtown'' by The New York Times. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau offers a Rainbow Guide, a long list of gay-friendly businesses.
Is Pridefest, which began 29 years ago as a mostly political rally, necessary anymore?
'Yes, because we need our time, a space to interact when we can say, `This is ours,' '' said Rick Wolfe, who lives in Miami Beach.
BIGGER EACH YEAR
Mark Ketcham, 45, of Fort Lauderdale, recalled the much smaller Pridefest he first attended 11 years ago. Businesses have gone where the market is, and the gay community in South Florida is better for it, he said.
''There are Mercedes and Cadillacs and Beemers in the parking lot,'' he said. ``You can't run a company that discriminates against gays.''
Organizer Sonia Mitchell remembers Pridefest seven years ago when the event catered mostly to gays. ''It's more a family thing now,'' she said. ``There are straight people, kids, every kind of person having a good time.''
Jodi Sherman, 48, laughed and plunked down $15 for a camouflage T-shirt that read ''Redneckbear'' -- a slang term for a beefy gay man. The purchase was her way of supporting her daughter's fiancé who is serving in Iraq.
BEST FRIENDS
The Weston mother of three, who is straight, said her best friends, Mark Rode, 33, and his boyfriend Tim Kingston, 43, asked her to join them.
''I would do anything for these guys,'' she said. ``I just love them. You know, I raised my kids not to be prejudiced and it really upsets me to think that they wouldn't have the same rights as me.''
The three met 12 years ago when Rode and Kingston moved to Sherman's Sunrise neighborhood. 'We didn't want to live in a gay community. The gay community couldn't believe it. They were like, `You're going to live on the outside?' '' recalled Rode. ``Everyone [in the Sunrise neighborhood] was accepting of us.''
But he and his partner of 17 years still experience subtle bigotry. ''It's not as accepting as it should be. We're not registered as domestic partners,'' he said. ``They don't give us civil unions.''
For those reasons, Pridefest will always have its place.
