News release from Miami Beach Gay Pride:
Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade & Festival To Host Volunteer Recruitment Orientation
MIAMI BEACH – January 4, 2012 – Calling all volunteers who have Pride -- Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade and Festival will host a volunteer recruitment orientation this Saturday, January 7, at 1 p.m. at MOVA Lounge, 1625 Michigan Avenue, on Miami Beach. Committee leaders and Board members will be on hand at the event to discuss volunteer opportunities not only for the weekend of Pride, but also for the weeks leading up to the event.
Miami Beach Pride is an extraordinary all-day event that features a loud and colorful parade followed by an enormous festival with more than 100 booths, exciting celebrities, musical performances, refreshments, food and a family-friendly play area. For 2012, the parade moves to Sunday to allow for an additional day of activity leading up to the popular parade and festival, said Babak Movahedi, president of the Pride Board of Directors.
In addition to volunteers for the parade and festival on Sunday, Movahedi said volunteers are needed for Pride weekend activities that will include a Friday night block party along Lincoln Road, a Saturday pool party at the Surfcomber Hotel, a Saturday night VIP fundraising event, and a Sunday night closing party after the parade and festival.
Coming into its fourth year, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown into the largest, single-day event of the entire year in Miami Beach. The hugely successful event in 2011 attracted more than 40,000 people from all walks of life, all parts of the country, and all age groups. Last year’s Pride Parade and Festival featured a parade with 66 entries and 1,200 participants, followed by an enormous festival with A-list celebrities and musical performances, 125 LGBT-friendly vendors and businesses, refreshments, and a family-friendly play area.
The mission of Miami Beach Gay Pride is to bring together members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, their friends, allies, and supporters in celebration of the unique spirit and culture of the LGBT community by producing free, safe, quality mass-appeal events that are open to all, including the Parade, Festival, and allied Miami Beach Pride sanctioned events. For more information as events and activities are confirmed, visit www.miamibeachgaypride.com.
As a gay man, I am always ashamed to see pictures of the gay pride parade. Half naked gay men wearing thongs and leather hardnesses is not an adequate portrayal of MY lifestyle. I wish everyone met the other 99%... gay men who live respectable lives and who don't define the gay lifestyle in an over sexualized way.
Posted by: Oscario Enrique | January 05, 2012 at 07:56 PM
Oscario, thank you for your comment.
You might want to read this previous blog post:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2011/04/longtime-same-sex-couples-parade-along-ocean-drive-for-miami-beach-gay-pride-festival.html
Posted by: Steve Rothaus | January 05, 2012 at 08:39 PM
The 2012 Annual Mumbai (Bombay) Gay Pride March is on Jan 28, 2012. The "Rainbow Flag" symbol is an important part of the parade.
The march is called the "2012 Mumbai Queer Azaadi (Freedom) March". In the run up to the march the organizers have had fund raising events, plays, film festival and a Gay Flash Mob Dance on Mumbai's beautiful Marine Drive.
Posted by: Mumbai_Events | January 25, 2012 at 12:36 AM