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Steve Rothaus

Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida - for and about (but not just) LGBT people

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We’ve moved! Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida is now a section on the new MiamiHerald.com

new GSF

Click here for all the latest LGBT stories, photos and videos at Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida.

Update your bookmarks. The quick link: www.miamiherald.com/gay

We’re now a full section at the new MiamiHerald.com, including local, national and foreign stories of interest to the LGBT community.

From now on, all Gay South Florida content will be fully visible on any device, including smartphones, tablets and desktops.

Also, you’ll be able to comment directly to Facebook from any story posted to Gay South Florida.

This blog will no longer be updated, but will remain available to quickly find earlier stories.

If you have any questions, contact me at srothaus@MiamiHerald.com.

Thanks for visiting!

September 18, 2014 in AIDS and Health, Arts, Bisexual, Books, Bullying, Business, Census, Crime, Current Affairs, Fashion, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Immigration, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Military, Music, Obituary, Palm Beach County, Pets, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Television, Theater, Transgender, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (4)

‘I Love Lucy Live On Stage’ celebrates Miami run with free cocktail party at Arsht Center

Euriamis Losada (Ricky), Thea Brooks (Lucy), Lori Hammel (Ethel) and Kev...

 

Caption: Euriamis Losada (Ricky), Thea Brooks (Lucy), Lori Hammel (Ethel) and Kevin Remington (Fred), in I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE - Photo by Ed Krieger

BY ABRAHAM GALVAN

agalvan@MiamiHerald.com

Calling all Vitameatavegamin girls. And boys.

I Love Lucy Live On Stage is soon coming to town and to celebrate the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts will host a free community cocktail party 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Featured events at the party: performances by Miami Gay Men’s Chorus (each member dressed as Desi Arnaz’s TV alter ego, Ricky Ricardo) and a Lucille Ball/Lucy Ricardo lookalike contest – open to all genders.

“I encourage men to enter the contest also,” said Morgan Stockmayer, promotions manager for the Arsht Center. “I am actually looking forward to seeing them.”


Miami Gay Men’s Chorus will perform two 20-minute sets of their own repertoire, along with musical numbers featured on I Love Lucy, which ran on CBS from 1951 to 1957.Male or female, the contest winner will receive a package including I Love Lucy Live tickets and a pin-up style photo shoot by Terribly Girly Photography’s Janette Valentine. Judges are local fashion experts Gino R. Campodonico of The MANnequin Party, Kalyn James from Fashion Style Miami, and Annie Vasquez of TheFashionPoet.com.

The gay men’s chorus opens and closes the reception. “We do a set really early in the happy hour and then in about an hour or so come back and do another set,” artistic director Anthony Cabrera said.

For the past three months, the chorus has been preparing at its regular rehearsal location, All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Miami Beach.

“We try to perform to the highest caliber because when we go out to perform we give it our all,” chorus member Brandon Stephenson said.

The cocktail party, part of DWNTWN Art Days 2014, will be hosted by 101.5 Lite FM morning personality Julie Guy and showcase classic cars from Dezer Collection Auto Museum and Event Space. Photos and footage from the current HistoryMiami exhibit, American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, will also be featured.

The signature cocktail of the night will $5 Mojitos, along with other “Tropicana nightclub” drinks.

I Love Lucy Live On Stage runs Sept. 30-Oct. 5 at the Arsht Center, where Miami audience members can imagine themselves as a 1952 I Love Lucy studio audience watching Ball, Arnaz, William Frawley and Vivian Vance perform as Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel.

IF YOU GO

▪ What: ‘I Love Lucy Live On Stage’ Cocktail Hour

▪ When: Friday, Sept. 19

▪ Where: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts: 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132

▪ Cost: Free admission; $5 mojitos and other drinks.

▪ Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1463657213892490

September 17, 2014 in Arts, Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Film, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Television, Theater, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook gallery | World Outgames Miami 2017 reception - Sept. 16, 2014

2014-09-16 World OutGames Miami 2017 reception 002

World Outgames Miami 2017 host committee members review the accomplishments of the past year and explain what lies ahead in the planning process for World OutGames Miami when the city expects to welcome more than 15,000 participants and spectators from around the world.

Click here to view and tag the photos. Steve Rothaus / Miami Herald Staff.

September 16, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Aqua Foundation scholarships help young lesbian, bisexual, transgender women succeed

BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Nursing student Kim Carias worked two jobs putting herself through school at Florida International University. Three scholarships from Aqua Foundation for Women have enabled her to continue college, quit one job and volunteer time mentoring LGBT youths.

“Aqua Foundation has empowered me to be the leader I was meant to be,” said Carias, 20, who was born and raised in Miami-Dade County. “By supporting leaders of a community, the Aqua Foundation empowers a generation of change. On a personal level, the Aqua Foundation has allowed me to step away from my personal struggles and empowered me to lead.”

Aqua Foundation on Saturday presents Aqua Affair, a fundraiser for the organization’s scholarship fund. Since its inception a decade ago, the foundation has granted about $400,000 in scholarships, according to marketing manager Tommy Gomez.

Since 2013, Aqua has led an effort to raise $100,000 for a community LGBTQ youth homelessness initiative. It also awarded two-dozen $5,000 scholarships.

“The scholarships are important for a variety of reasons,” said Robin Schwartz, Aqua Foundation’s executive director, who is stepping down this fall after four years running the organization.

“First, the financial support often makes a difference between a woman going to school or not,” Schwartz said. “More important are the leadership aspects. We identify women who’ve already shown the potential to be leaders in the community. We foster those skills through the relationship they have with their mentors and the volunteering they do at Aqua, which is a requirement. This year we had a leadership conference that they attended, where they gained valuable skills from current women leaders in our community.”

This year’s scholarship is Carias’ third from Aqua Foundation. So far, the group has given the FIU junior $12,500.

“Oh, wow,” she says, reflecting on the total. “I'm so fortunate to have received this scholarship. I really am. They've given me so much.”

Carias said she came out to her mother just before she graduated in 2012 from Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in Northeast Miami-Dade.

“Right before prom, I wanted to tell her I was going to prom with my girlfriend,” Carias said. “She said she’d rather not live than have a daughter had that kind of lifestyle. When I came out to her, she didn’t speak to me for quite a while.”

Carias, who is Spanish-Honduran, said that growing up she knew nothing about her LGBT community.

“I did not know my cousin was gay. I was raised around him all my life and I had no idea. The word homosexuality was not mentioned at home,” she said. “When I had these feelings, being attracted to women, I didn’t even know what that meant.”

Even now, Carias’ mother does not want anyone else in the family to know she is a lesbian.

“But I know I’m strong enough to handle anything,” she said. “It’s who I am, and I’m proud of who I am.”

Carias, who transfers soon to Nova Southeastern University, spends much of her time volunteering for Safe Schools South Florida, an LGBT group of education professionals, youth service providers and gay-straight student alliances. She speaks on Safe Schools’ behalf in the mainstream community.

“A lot of my work with Safe Schools revolves around me telling my story,” Carias said. “You can tell them and give them all these facts, but it’s not until they hear the real story and see the pain in someone’s eyes that they’re able to change, change their hearts and change their minds and realize that whoever I love, it’s OK. They can embrace it and not condemn me for who I am.”

IF YOU GO

▪ What: Aqua Affair to benefit Aqua Foundation for Women

▪ When: 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20

▪ Where: Gale South Beach, 1690 Collins Ave., Miami Beach

▪ Cost: $55 Aqua Foundation members, $75 nonmembers, $95 at door.

For tickets or more information, www.aquafoundation.org

September 16, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Food and Drink, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miami-Dade County commission gives early OK to transgender-protections law

BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
PMAZZEI@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Gay-rights activists prepared for a political skirmish Tuesday at Miami-Dade County Hall. They wore matching T-shirts, arrived early and filled several rows of the commission chambers in support of legislation expanding protections to transgender people.

But no one — in the audience or on the dais — showed up in opposition.

Commissioners gave unanimous — though preliminary — approval to amending the Miami-Dade’s human-rights ordinance to ban discrimination on the base of “gender identity” and “gender expression.” The law applies to public places and government services, as well as to employment and housing in the county as a whole.

“This update that we’re working on would ensure very basic protections for a very vulnerable part of our community that many take for granted,” said Charo Valero, field organizer for SAVE, Miami-Dade’s leading gay-rights organization that has been pushing for the legislative change.

For an issue that has been contentious in the past — two commissioners tried to get it passed a year ago but had to back off — Tuesday’s vote was noteworthy for what it lacked. No one from the public said anything against it. Supporters didn’t even represent a majority of the speakers at the hearing; a larger crowd asked the county to press the state to reinstate a tax incentive for the film industry.

With a 10-0 vote, commissioners advanced the transgender-amendment proposal. Three board members — Lynda Bell, Xavier Suarez and Juan C. Zapata — were absent from the vote. Vice-Chairwoman Bell had cast the sole vote against the legislation when it first came up last year.

Bell lost reelection last month after being targeted by Miami-Dade and Florida Democrats in part because of that dissent. Her successor, Daniella Levine Cava, a proponent of the amendment, is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 24.

Yet Bell was not the only one who stood in the way of the legislation in 2013. Sponsors Audrey Edmonson and Bruno Barreiro withdrew it after failing to garner enough behind-the-scenes support in the Health & Social Services Committee, whose members include Bell, Edmonson and Commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Jean Monestime and Javier Souto. The makeup of that committee hasn’t changed.

In an apparent strategic move, Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa on Tuesday assigned the proposal to a different committee this time around — one that will be much friendlier to expanding the human-rights ordinance.

Two of the four members of the Public Safety & Animal Services Committee are sponsors Barreiro and Edmonson. A third, Sally Heyman, has also signed her name to the legislation in support. The fourth member is Esteban “Steve” Bovo.

A committee hearing is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12.

After the vote, activists filed out of the commission chambers and, minutes later, sent supporters an email titled, “A big win! BUT...” noting nothing has been finalized.

Among those in attendance was Tobias Packer, a local union executive and transgender man who said Miami-Dade’s lack of protections were on his mind when he was home-hunting.

“My landlord did a background check,” said Packer, 31. “Everything worked out. But I was really nervous. He was going to see I was transgender. He would have been within his right to deny me.”

Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida, said the push for a statewide transgender law raises the stakes for the Miami-Dade debate.

“We think it’s important that, as the state takes a look at it, for Miami-Dade to show some leadership,” he said.

Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.

September 16, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Transgender protections come before Miami-Dade commission — again

BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
PMAZZEI@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A pair of Miami-Dade commissioners will attempt for the second time to add transgender protections Tuesday to a county law that bans discrimination in government employment and the delivery of public services.

“This country is evolving in a way where we’re more accepting, so I think this is a good time to bring it back,” Commissioner Audrey Edmonson said.

She and Bruno Barreiro withdrew the legislation last summer when it faced resistance in a key committee made up of five commissioners, some of whom indicated they would oppose expanding the county’s human-rights ordinance.

The difference now: One of those commissioners is on her way out the door.

Lynda Bell lost her reelection bid last month to Daniella Levine Cava, who was elected with the vocal support of SAVE, Miami-Dade’s leading gay-rights group that blamed Bell for the failure of last year’s trans-inclusive amendment. Bell, who received the backing of conservative activists, countered that hers was merely a single vote.

Levine Cava won’t be sworn in until Nov. 18. That means Bell will still be on the dais Tuesday, when Edmonson and Barreiro’s proposal is scheduled for a preliminary vote.

But Levine Cava would be on the board by the time the measure winds through the commission’s legislative process. A final vote would take place in December at the earliest.

That’s assuming the proposal advances Tuesday. It did so last year, with only one commissioner — Bell — voting against.

Edmonson, the chairwoman of the health committee, acknowledged the changing composition of the board in an interview Monday, but also noted a shift in society and popular culture as a reason for resuscitating the proposal now. After withdrawing it last year, she and Barreiro had to wait at least six months, under county rules, before bringing it back.

“It’s something that has to be dealt with,” Barreiro said.

As proposed, the amended law, which is also co-sponsored by Commissioner Sally Heyman, would extend the discrimination ban to “gender identity” and “gender expression.”

It’s already illegal in county government to discriminate against someone — in terms of their public employment, family leave, accommodations, credit and financing, or public housing — on the base of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, marital status, familial status or sexual orientation.

Adding “sexual orientation” to the law was a decades-long political fight recently examined in The Day It Snowed In Miami, a documentary co-produced by the Miami Herald.

But much has changed since voters approved the addition in 2002, passed by the commission in 1998. In 2003, Monroe County and Key West widened their human-rights ordinances to include transgender protections. Miami Beach did the same in 2004, Palm Beach County in 2007 and Broward County in 2008. Last year, Gainesville’s Alachua County passed a similar law.

In June, Miami Beach commissioners voted to provide city employees with transgender health insurance, which would cover treatments such as gender-reassignment surgery and hormone and psychological therapy but not cosmetic procedures.

Opponents organized by the conservative Christian Family Coalition last year claimed the county’s expanded definition would allow people who are not transgender to dress up as the other sex and walk into public restrooms to prey on victims. A flier produced by the group featured a man with beard stubble wearing a blonde wig and leering at a frightened little girl.

Anthony Verdugo, the organization’s executive director, said he doesn’t plan to attend Tuesday’s meeting because he’s out of town. But he continues to oppose the policy, calling it “a solution in search of a problem.”

“It legalizes discrimination, because it gives a reason for employers to fire employees,” Verdugo said. He cited the case of a Macy’s employee in Texas who lost her job in 2011 because the employee said she didn’t allow a transgender customer to use a women’s dressing room.

“There just simply is no evidence for the need for this,” Verdugo said.

Edmonson, however, dismissed that criticism — and the idea that expanding the county’s anti-discrimination law would somehow legalize preying on people in restrooms or other public places.

“That was just a smoke screen,” she said. “We’ve got at least 10 counties already in the state [with similar legislation], and no one’s having that problem.”

IF YOU GO

The Miami-Dade County Commission meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the 2nd floor chambers of the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW 1st St., Miami.

September 15, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeals several gay-marriage rulings statewide

BY KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed appeals late Friday on several rulings overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage.

The motion argues the sole legal issue is the constitutional validity of the state ban and any changes should come from voters, not the courts. Florida voters approved the ban in 2008.

Bondi’s office said the agency joined the appeals to promote an orderly and consistent resolution after several judges around the state recently overturned Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. Bondi has asked judges to stop ruling on same-sex marriage cases until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether states can ban gay marriage. A number of similar rulings around the country have been put on hold while appeals are pursued.

Judges in four Florida counties – Palm Beach, Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward– have overturned the ban. A federal judge has also overturned the ban. U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle in Tallahassee ruled on Aug. 21 that the ban violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection and due process. Hinkle issued a stay delaying the effect of his order, pending possible appeals.

The latest Florida ruling came in a pair of lawsuits brought by gay couples seeking to marry in Florida and others who want to force Florida to recognize gay marriages performed legally in other states.

Click here to read more.

September 12, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Marriage, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joan Rivers’ executive producer speaks at Stonewall museum screening in Fort Lauderdale

The Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday screened Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, a 2010 documentary about the comedy legend, who died Sept. 4 at age 81.

Larry Ferber, former executive producer of The Joan Rivers Show and a three-time Emmy nominee, presented the film and shared anecdotes about Rivers.

Click here to view and tag Facebook photos from Stonewall event. Photos by Jon Schwenzer, South Florida chapter president of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA).

September 12, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Palm Beach County, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Television, Theater, Transgender, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

Music legend and ‘Fifth Season’ Bob Crewe dies at 82

kicksKaren Ocamb of FrontiersLA.com reports that Four Seasons music legend Bob Crewe died Thursday at age 82.

Two years ago, Crewe’s brother, Dan, posted online that Bob suffered from dementia and lived in a Los Angeles nursing home.

Crewe, a gay man, ironically wrote the big ‘60s hit, Music to Watch Girls By.

Two years ago, I interviewed actor Jonathan Hadley, who toured for years playing Crewe in the national company of Jersey Boys.

Here’s my article about Crewe published Jan. 11, 2012:

'Jersey Boys' pals sing praises of unsung Fifth Season, songwriter-producer-performer Bob Crewe

BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Known in the music business as “the Fifth Season,” songwriter-producer-performer Bob Crewe is the creative talent behind Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Lesley Gore and a legion of ‘60s American pop stars.

“He was responsible for that signature Four Seasons sound. He’s an unsung hero,” says actor Jonathan Hadley, who for four years has portrayed Crewe in the touring company of Broadway’s Jersey Boys, now at the Broward Center for Performing Arts.

Crewe produced the Four Seasons’ 1962 breakthrough hit Sherry, written by Bob Gaudio, and co-wrote (with Gaudio) Big Girls Don’t Cry, Rag DollandWalk Like a Man. All were No. 1 hits that catapulted the Seasons — Valli, Gaudio,Tommy DeVitoand Nick Massi — into superstardom.

“[Crewe’s] an artist. He’s got the best ears in the business,” says Rick Elice, who in the early 2000s co-wrote Jersey Boys with Oscar-winner Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall).

Elice, whose play Peter and the Starcatcher (based on the Peter Panprequel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) is being readied for a spring opening on Broadway, says it was Crewe’s concept to overdub Valli’s falsetto on early Four Seasons recordings.

“He’s very hip to new producing techniques,” Elice says.

In his prime, Crewe also produced music for Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin and Patti LaBelle (he co-wrote Labelle’s Lady Marmalade). In 1967, he scored three big successes: co-writing Valli’s No. 1 Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You: scoring Jane Fonda’s film Barbarella; and performing the No. 2 instrumental Music to Watch Girls By.

Now 80, Crewe suffers from dementia and lives in a Los Angeles nursing center, according to a recent blog post by his brother, Dan, president of The Bob Crewe Foundation for aspiring artists, AIDS research and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

In the early days, Crewe quietly identified as bisexual, Hadley says.

“We knew something was different about this guy but, back then, we thought Liberace was just theatrical,” says Hadley, 47, who is gay.

Right from the start, Jersey Boys is up front about Crewe. “My first line in the show is, ‘Watch your mouth Toto, we’re not in Newark anymore,’ Hadley says. “Right away, the audience says ‘Gay.’”

Elice says he and Brickman consulted with Crewe, Valli and Gaudio while writing Jersey Boys.

Crewe believed that in the early days, no one knew his sexual orientation. Wrong, according to Valli and Gaudio, who told Elice that “if you looked up gay in the dictionary, you’d see Bob.”

“It just didn’t matter to them. You’d think they’d be the kind of guys that it would be a problem. But they didn’t give a s--- if he was gay, straight or whatever,” says Elice, whose partner, actor Roger Rees, recently starred on Broadway in The Addams Family — book by Elice and Brickman.

Elice, 55, says Crewe made only one request of the Jersey Boys script: “That he not be represented as a screaming queen.”

“He’s not a screaming queen,” Elice says. “And Jonathan doesn’t play him that way.”

September 11, 2014 in Arts, Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Film, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Music, South Florida, Television, Theater, Transgender, Weblogs, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (1)

World OutGames Miami 2017 to host 2nd annual community reception on Tuesday, Sept. 16

News release from World OutGames 2017:

outgames

MIAMI BEACH – September 11, 2014 – The host committee of World OutGames Miami 2017 will present the 2nd Annual World OutGames Miami Community Reception on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., in the B Ballroom, second level, Miami Beach Convention Center. During the reception, members of the host committee will review the accomplishments of the past year and explain what lies ahead in the planning process for World OutGames Miami when the city expects to welcome more than 15,000 participants and spectators from around the world.

The reception is free and open to the public with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and 2-for-1 Happy Hour cocktails. RSVPs are requested to Miami@OutGames.org by September 15.

In addition to updates from the host committee, civic and community leaders will be on hand to share some special surprises and voice their support of World OutGames Miami. Volunteer and participant opportunities will also be showcased where individuals can join the organizing effort or register to compete in the Games.

In addition to sporting competitions in more than 30 individual sports, World OutGames Miami will feature cultural activities that highlight the local flavor of South Florida and a global Human Rights Conference to discuss issues being faced by the LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex) community from around the world.

Dates for World OutGames Miami are May 26 to June 4, 2017 with events taking place at venues throughout Miami Beach and Miami.

The Miami Beach-Miami Sports & Cultural League is the non-profit host organization for World OutGames Miami 2017. World OutGames is licensed by GLISA International (the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association) and takes place every four years in a different global city. 2017 will mark the first time that the Games have been held in the United States. Previous hosts have been Montreal, Copenhagen and Antwerp.  World OutGames is open to all who wish to participate, without regard to sexual orientation, and all competitions are arranged according to the skill level of the athletes.  Cultural and human rights components make the event a well-rounded experience for athletes and non-athletes alike. For more information on World OutGames Miami 2017, visit www.facebook.com/OutGamesMiami.

World OutGames Miami 2017 is made possible with the support of the Florida Sports Foundation, Greater Miami Convention and Visitor Bureau, City of Miami Beach, and Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority.

September 11, 2014 in Bisexual, Business, Current Affairs, Florida, Food and Drink, Fort Lauderdale & Broward County, Gay, Key West & Monroe County, Lesbian, LGBT, Media, Miami & Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Politics, Religion, South Florida, Sports, Transgender, Travel, Weblogs, Wilton Manors, Workplace, Youth | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Recent Posts

  • Weve moved! Steve Rothaus Gay South Florida is now a section on the new MiamiHerald.com
  • I Love Lucy Live On Stage celebrates Miami run with free cocktail party at Arsht Center
  • Facebook gallery | World Outgames Miami 2017 reception - Sept. 16, 2014
  • Aqua Foundation scholarships help young lesbian, bisexual, transgender women succeed
  • Miami-Dade County commission gives early OK to transgender-protections law
  • Transgender protections come before Miami-Dade commission again
  • Orange is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli leaves husband for actress who plays Poussey
  • Man wins fight to get same-sex union recognized in Arizona
  • Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeals several gay-marriage rulings statewide
  • Joan Rivers executive producer speaks at Stonewall museum screening in Fort Lauderdale
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