Delray Beach Moves Forward With LGBTQ Pride Streetscape in Pineapple Grove

May 4, 2021 At this evening's meeting, the Delray Beach City Commission presented the design for a permanent LGBTQ Pride Streetscape to be installed in the intersection of NE 2nd Avenue and NE 1st Street in Pineapple Grove.

Last fall, Delray Beach City Commissioner Ryan Boylston opened discussions about bringing significant LGBTQ public art to the city with resident Nicholas Coppola and Rand Hoch, President and Founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (PBCHRC). . PBCHRC is Florida's oldest, independent, non-partisan, political organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Coppola serves on the Board of Trustees of Compass, Palm Beach County's LGBTQ community center.The organization's mission is to engage, empower, and enrich the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and those impacted by HIV and AIDS. "When the the City of St. Petersburg completed their LGBTQ Pride streetscape last year, Commissioner Boylston reached out to us," said Coppola. "Ryan has been -- and continues to be -- an incredible ally to the LGBTQ community. His leadership on our streetscape is just one more way he shows his support."

Following those discussion, in December 2020, at Commissioner Boylston's request, City Commissioners unanimously agreed to direct staff to explore designing an intersection that would feature the colors in the LGBTQ Progress Pride Flag.

The streetscape includes bold stripes using not only the six colors in the traditional LGBTQ Pride Rainbow Flag (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet) but also the five additional colors in the Progress Pride Flag (black, brown, light blue, pink, and white). The additional colors represent people of color, trans and non-binary individuals, and those living with HIV/AIDS.. "The LGBTQ community in Delray Beach is incredibly diverse, as is the population of the city itself," said Boynston. "With this streetscape, we recognize and honor all of our residents and visitors."

Over months that followed, there was extensive public discussion of the "inclusivity intersection", as it was described by Interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez at this evening's meeting.. Elected officials and city staff met with the Pineapple Grove Mainstreet Advisory Board, the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Development Authority, Arts Garage, and several other organizations throughout Delray Beach. There was overwheling support for the project.

"We thank the Delray Beach City Commission and city staff for working to create this amazing tribute to the city's LGBTQ community," said Hoch. "Over the past thirty years, the LGBTQ community in Delray Beach has gone from being nearly invisible, to being tolerated, to being acknowledged, to being granted equal rights and benefits, to having our families recognized, and now, to having the diversity of the LGBTQ community publically celebrated," said Hoch. "That is quite an achievement."

Mayor Shelly Petrolia intends to host a commemorative ceremony for the LGBTQ Pride Streetscape in June, which is LGBTQ Pride Month