“I knew this was going to be a gay destination mecca – that I was going to have fun, it was going to be a good time – but I had no idea how diverse this city is. “I was kind of expecting a gay Pleasantville,” said gay vlogger Ravi Roth, 33, visiting from New York. Rainbow flags and LGBTQ couples holding hands seem as common as waves along the beach. Together, they offer more than 200 gay-owned hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants and shops. The city claims one of the country’s highest concentrations of same-sex couples, as does its neighboring gayborhood, Wilton Manors. Welcoming more than 1.1 million LGBTQ visitors a year, Greater Fort Lauderdale comes by its inclusiveness naturally. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) dubbed the Big Gay Agenda: “smart infrastructure, smart growth and a side of fairness and equity for all.”įort Lauderdale, the county seat of Broward County, was one of the first to legalize protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and its school district was among the first to support LGBTQ History Month in October. The diverse and cosmopolitan city benefits from what Rep.
Progressive Fort Lauderdale has been proudly celebrating and courting the LGBTQ community for decades, recently incorporating transgender models into its mainstream tourism ads.
