Delray Beach LGBTQIA+ Pride Streetscape Ribbon Cutting on June 12 at 10:00 a.m.

 

On Saturday, June 12 at 10:00 a.m., Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia and City Commissioners will dedicate the city's newest memorial -- the LGBTQ Pride Streetscape. “The Pride Streetscape is about solidarity, inclusion, and visibility; a proud celebration of our city’s diversity," said Mayor Shelly Petrolia.

Image courtesy of Maxwell Zengage

The streetscape, based on the Progress Pride Flag, is located at the intersection of NE 2nd Avenue and NE 1st Street in Pineapple Grove Arts District in Delray Beach The Progress Pride Flag adds five colors to the iconic six-color Rainbow Pride Flag .The additional colors -- black, brown, light blue, pink, and white -- emphasizes inclusion and progression, representing people of color, trans and non-binary individuals, and those living with HIV/AIDS.

Last fall, 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). "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."

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 people and those impacted by HIV and AIDS. "When the the City of St. Petersburg completed their 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."

Planning for the streetscape involved staff from various city departments, Compass and other stakeholders from the LGBTQ community, and the support of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and PBCHRC -- the project's sponsors..

PBCHRC is Florida's oldest, independent, non-partisan, political organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

"We thank Delray Beach's elected officials and staff, for creating this amazing monument 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 LGBTQIA+community publically celebrated," said Hoch. "That is quite an achievement.