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In Recognition of Pride Month

June 2018

WHEREAS, June marks the annual celebration of the progress that the LGBT community has made in equality and fairness and serves as a time to recommit ourselves to accomplishing the work of fighting discrimination; and

WHEREAS, this past weekend, the Stonewall Parade and Festival occurred in neighboring Wilton Manors to celebrate the 49th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969 where the modern movement for LGBT rights in the United States was launched; and

WHEREAS, this year is also the 41st anniversary of the first pride festival in South Florida, which occurred after Anita Bryant's push in 1977 to repeal a Miami-Dade County ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination; and

WHEREAS, greater Fort Lauderdale is a diverse and welcoming community with one of the highest concentrations of same-sex households in the nation and hundreds of LGBT-owned businesses; and

WHEREAS, the area also is home to the Sunshine Cathedral, one of the nation's largest Metropolitan Community Church congregations; the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, which is the largest LGBT circulating library in the United States; and the World AIDS Museum, the only museum in existence dedicated to telling the story of the disease and those affected by it; and

WHEREAS, greater Fort Lauderdale is one of the nation's most popular LGBT tourist destinations with more than 1.3 million LGBT visitors vacationing here each year and spending $1.5 billion; and

WHEREAS, Fort Lauderdale serves as an example to the nation of the importance of diversity and equality for all and is proud to honor the decades of contributions of LGBT individuals to not only this community but to the entire nation.

NOW THEREFORE, WE, as City Commissioners of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, do hereby proclaim June 2018 as:

LGBT Pride Month

in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

DATED this, 19th day of June 2018.