YES, Miami is one of, if not the MOST LGBTQ friendly places in the whole of America and i’ll tell you why…
The LGBTQ community in Miami is one of the largest and most visible in the country starting in the 1930s that saw the beginning of Miami’s homosexual nightclub culture and why Miami is known as a gay destination, drawing in over a million gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people every year.
The Miami area as a whole has been welcoming to the LGBTQ community for decades and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is one of the few such organisations in the United States.
The projected number of gay and bisexual residents of Miami way back in 2005 was 15,277 and now in the 2020’s, there are reportedly 185,000 people in the Miami metropolitan region who identify as LGBT.
The surge of gays and lesbians to South Beach in the late 1980s and early 1990s helped revive Miami Beach after decades of economic and social collapse and those arrivals bought run-down hotels and nightclubs, renovated them, opened up dozens of new companies and amassed political influence at the municipal and county levels.
Many people now regard Miami Beach to be the Gay Mecca because of how welcoming and accommodating it is to the LGBTQ population. There have been periodic cultural clashes and disagreements over whether South Beach is still as “gay-friendly” as it once was as the city has become more popular as a national and international tourist destination.
Since 2004, locals and tourists alike have been able to legally register as domestic partners in Miami Beach and in 2008, this right was extended to the whole of Miami-Dade County with an LGBT Visitor Center being established at the historic Old City Hall in Miami Beach in 2010 by the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
According to a 2014 assessment by the nation’s leading LGBT-rights group, Miami Beach is the most LGBT-friendly city in the United States.
LGBTQ In Miami
Miami is home to people of many different cultures and backgrounds and this diversity has deep historical roots with the LGBTQ community in Miami having a long history of spearheading revival initiatives in several of Miami’s older neighbourhoods through activism and the arts.
Since Miami is located within Miami-Dade County, it is protected by the same Human Rights Ordinance that applies to the rest of the county which guarantees its residents protection from discrimination in a variety of areas, including the workplace, public accommodations, credit and financing, family leave and protection from domestic violence.
Wilton Manors Miami
Wilton Manors is its own city within Broward County, Florida and gets its nickname “The Island City” from the fact that it is encircled by water on every side. There is a substantial lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population in this town and tourists flock to the area every winter to enjoy the town’s many bars and shops along Wilton Drive.
There’s a huge Pride centre there, as well as the World AIDS Museum and Educational Center. Wilton Manors’s police force also includes openly gay and lesbian officers and the department’s website boasts of “police training that is focused toward working with the City’s LGBT population.”
Pride Week Miami Beach
Every year, Miami hosts a week-long festival celebrating the LGBTQ community on Miami Beach. Pride Week in Miami Beach centres around the Pride Parade, the Pride Festival and the Pride Beach Party but despite Miami Beach’s prominence as a gay hub in the ’80s and ’90s, the city didn’t hold its first official Gay Pride Parade until April 2009.
As Grand Marshals for Pride weekend, celebrities like Chaz Bono, Adam Lambert, Gloria Estefan, Mario Lopez, and Elvis Duran have attended and it drew an estimated 150,000 people in 2019 before the 2 year shutdown, making it the largest turnout ever.
Gay8 “Ocho” Festival Miami
In recent years, the Gay8 Festival, the largest Hispanic LGBTQ festival in the United States, has played a significant role in revitalising the Little Havana neighbourhood. Since its beginning in 2015, the Gay8 Festival has consistently drawn in excess of 60,000 visitors every year and rising.
The festival is a huge party in the middle of Miami’s historic Little Havana district, celebrating diversity and inclusion through art, a curated food section, curated booth sellers, multiple themed dance parties, a doggy village, free films at the historic Tower Theatre and cultural arts.
The festival connects LGBTQ and other different communities across South Florida, helping to strike a balance between preservation and economic development, tourist and investment promotion and celebration of diversity and inclusion.
The 4Ward Gala “Pa’lante Awards” during the Gay8 Festival is aimed at raising public awareness of social justice concerns and honouring those who are at the forefront of social change.