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Miami Beach Gay Pride Holds Its Largest Celebration Yet

Pride weekend events began Thursday night, when Pulse nightclub survivor Mario Perez “flipped the switch,” turning The Freedom Tower, The Miami Tower, The AmericanAirlines Arena and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts into illuminating tributes with rainbow colored lights embellished on the buildings.

By Friday, people were spilling onto Ocean Drive from 11th to 14th streets to celebrate the ninth annual Gay Pride Festival in Miami Beach all the way through Sunday night.

“It takes a village to raise a child is the old expression; it takes about 500 volunteers to pull this off. We’re going to entertain 150,000 people this weekend,” said Richard Murry, Miami Beach Gay Pride’s marketing director.

Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown in its number of floats, volunteers and participating groups — about 75 were in the parade this year.

Kate Smith, a visitor from New York, was there with her wife Saturday, people watching. They’ve been going to Pride events for 20 years.

Smith said gays have come a long way in history since the Stonewall Riots in 1969 — an event many credit as the beginning of the equal rights movement for the LGBTQ community.

“Society out here today is completely accepting. I don’t have to be on TV beating my chest and fighting the fight,” said Smith. “And if you work somewhere that doesn’t embrace you, forget them.”

This year’s parade grand marshals included Ross Mathews, a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race;
“Uncle Johnny” from the Elvis Duran and Y100 morning show, and local activists Liebe and Seth Gadinsky from Miami Beach.

“We have come so far,” said Mathews on Saturday in an interview on the festival’s colorful main stage. “But I think we need to push harder now than ever.”

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