Key West, Orlando, Gilbert Baker, and the Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag

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Earlier this year, we mourned the passing of Gilbert Baker, the LGBTQ rights activist who designed the rainbow pride flag in 1978. This June we again feel his loss as countless rainbow flags are waved at LGBTQ pride celebrations all over the world.

Fourteen years ago, Key West Pride had an instrumental role in celebrating the flag’s 25^th anniversary, reports the Florida Keys News. On June 15, 2003, pride revelers unfurled a 1.25-mile long pride flag from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, earning it the name the “Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag.”

Baker and several volunteers spent months sewing the enormous flag. When asked why he chose Key West to celebrate the flag’s anniversary, Baker said, “The thing that sold it for me, in terms of committing to do it, was when I found that the city’s motto was ‘One Human Family.’”

Susan West, who helped create the flag, spoke about the power of watching over 3,000 volunteers carry the flag. “We had people join in at the last second. My neighbors were having a birthday party across the street. They brought the whole party down.”

She added, “Gilbert was a sweetheart, he kept in touch. He will always be around us.”

Section 93 of the Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag made an appearance last week at the County Administration building in honor of the one year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, according to the Orlando Observer.

Read the Florida Keys News article here.

OutCoast Staff

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29sepAll Day08octRiver City Pride

04oct5:00 pm9:00 pmRiver City Family Pride Night

05octAll Day06International Culture of Remembrance Symposium

05octAll Day08TIGLFF Film Festival Tampa Edition

05octAll Day09GIW Beach

06oct7:00 pmYbor City Sirens Presents Horrorlesque: Kick Off To Halloween

07oct10:00 am4:00 pmDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Book Giveaway

07oct5:00 pmParranda

07oct8:00 pm10:00 pmThe Witches Ball

08oct5:00 pm9:00 pmLickHer Pop @ The Saint Speakeasy

12octAll Day05novLove! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally

13oct6:00 pmWest Coast Pride Presents ‘Coming Out on Fright Night’

13oct8:00 pmTricks And Screams: Be Witched

13oct10:00 pmThe Playbois

14oct11:00 am4:00 pmCome Out St. Pete Family Day Celebration

14oct11:00 am3:00 pmUnite For Good Bazaar

14oct11:30 am3:00 pmCASA Pinellas Scavenger Hunt

14oct3:00 pm9:00 pmGulf Coast LGBTQ Center’s Northwest Florida Pride Fest

14oct4:00 pm9:00 pmPridetoberfest

14oct6:00 pm10:00 pmVisuality’s Coming Out Gala

14oct6:00 pm11:00 pmQueer Easels Vol 4

14oct(oct 14)6:30 pm15(oct 15)2:00 amNational LGBTQ Task Force Gala

14oct7:00 pm10:00 pmEquality Florida’s 2023 Suncoast Celebration

19oct7:00 pmWatermark’s Movies Out Loud

19oct7:00 pmMichael Goodman’s 60th Birthday Cher-abration Starring Michael Dean as Cher at Lips Fort Lauderdale

20octAll Day29Fantasy Fest Key West

20oct6:00 pm10:00 pmReady, Set, Pride Mixer

20oct7:00 pmOutstage at Palm Beach Dramaworks – Lobby Hero

20oct8:00 pmUnholy Pride Halloween Event

21oct11:00 amThe Sarasota PRIDE Festival

21oct12:00 pm2:00 pmHalloween Drag Brunch

21oct5:00 pm7:00 pmAll Families Play! PFLAG Safety Harbor Family Playgroup

22oct6:00 pmLala Wiggy’s MURDER MYSTERY Drag Cabaret

22oct6:00 pmCLOSET BALL 2024 at Southern Nights Tampa

23oct8:30 am12:00 pmFlorida Food is Medicine JUMPSTART Session

23oct7:00 pmJungle LGBTQ+ After Party

24oct6:30 pm8:30 pmFilm Screening of “You’re Loved”

26oct5:30 pm7:00 pmArts Mean Business Speaker Series Featuring Figurative Painter and Muralist Elio Mercado / Evoca1

26oct8:00 pm40th Anniversary Headdress Ball

27octAll Day304-Day LGBTQIA+ Well-Being & Community Building Retreat

27oct7:00 pmHalloween Glam Bingo

27oct9:30 pm11:30 pmMonsters Booze Cruise

28oct4:00 pm7:00 pmTampa Riverwalk Trick or Treat

28oct8:00 pmHall-O-Queen

29oct8:00 pm10:30 pmFright Night Delight – A Sweet Screams Burlesque

29oct8:00 pmKavaween

31oct01nov3 Year Anniversary Halloween Party